Protecting Our Backyard: District 9’s New Direction w/ Imara Crooms

In this week's episode of the Left Handed Leftist, we're joined  by Imara Crooms, candidates for Prince George's County Council District Maryland. We discuss economic justice, holding developers accountable, lack of healthcare options and more. He points out the need of community organizers and participating in public financing. 

Imara Crooms

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

What's up, you all? What's up, you all? Welcome to Left Handed Leftists. You all, we have an incredible episode today. We're gonna be talking about Prince George's County, but specifically District 9. We're gonna be talking about economic development. We're gonna be talking about housing. We're gonna be talking about healthcare, environmental justice, also data centers, what we cannot forget to mention. You all, this is gonna be an incredible conversation. And joining me for this conversation is Amara Crooms. He is a candidate for Prince George's County Council in District 9. And before we get started, remember you all, this is a podcast. So please like, share, subscribe, rate us five stars, and also hit that notifications bell so that you get alerted every time we drop a new episode. And without further ado, let's get it started. What is up, you all? What is up, you all? Amara Crooms. Thanks so much for joining me. How are you doing today? Awesome. Thank you for having me. Awesome. Yes, yes. So please, we know that you are here uh because you are a candidate for the District 9 Prince George's County Council seat. Can you please just tell us about yourself, why you're running, and why this seat and why now?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

So um my name, as you said, is Amara Crooms. I am a Democrat leftist running to represent the 9th district of Prince George's County on our county council. The reason I'm running in this seat is because this is where I live. My wife and I live on a little farm in Croom. And folks may not know this about the 9th district. The 9th District is massive, uh, it is rural, uh, it is agricultural, and as is the case in much of our uh much of our democracy across the nation, those large, spread-out areas can be difficult to represent. And I think it's super important to do so. I am fundamentally running for this race because my background is uh in the promotion of democracy, and I it is the thing I believe most ferociously in in life. I think that people deserve to be represented. I think that people deserve to ask more of the people who represent them. Ultimately, I am of the belief, as are others in my political leading, that this is this is not supposed to be about me. This is supposed to be about the people. And I am hoping that once elected, I can show folks what this is supposed to look like, you know, uh, and that four or eight years from now, my type of race will be the norm instead of uh an an extreme outlier.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

That's awesome. That's that's awesome. And you mentioned that that you have a a huge district. I believe district nine is the the largest district within the uh within the county. Can you kind of tell us what cities or areas like is this is this district made up of?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I appreciate that edit from cities to areas. Yeah. So district nine includes everything from Clinton all the way down to Akakek. It is like when you look at the map, I think I have a map on the wall behind me. Probably can't see it. When I look when you look at the map, it is like the entire southern swath of the county, often fondly referred to as South County.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Okay, great. So with that, talking about you, you're running for District 9, 9 because you live there. Is there a particular reason that you chose county council, let's say instead of like a city council or a delegate or senator seat, um, something smaller, more like low localized than a larger county council?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So city council, I don't live in a city, so I think gonna do that. But state delegates, you know what's interesting is that question of size, right? Like, so when you when you assert that like state senate or state legislature is a lower-level position, it is and it isn't. You know, the decisions you're making are massive. Those are state level decisions. But I think that the challenge is that the tradition is that one runs in a ladder, that our politics are a ladder, and that like folks should go to the school board. Then they might run for state rep, then they might run for county council, then they might run for county executive or or Congress or something like that. And like, I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, that is wrong. That is not how democracy is supposed to work. Um, this seat, this seat that I'm running for, is the people's seat. Everybody who's listening to this podcast, you should know that nothing makes you more or less qualified than anyone else running. That that idea of someone having the experience to run for office, absolute nonsense. Um, we live in a democracy, the people decide who they want to represent them. And I don't need to serve for, you know, however many years on school board or on on in the state legislature to to represent this district.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Wow, I love that. And I actually love that you brought it up in this in the sense of like we shouldn't be looking at at who represents us in public office as this like career path ladder to, oh, let me start out small to go there. And I um uh pose that question because a lot of people just in general, I think we've gotten so so attuned to that um politics is a career path move rather than a, hey, I'm here to actually serve, serve the residents. So it is definitely a breath of fresh air that you're mentioning it like this as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Well, thank you. Yeah, I find it heartbreaking. Uh like I said, democracy is a thing I ferociously believe in. And so when like the idea, when I'm out knocking doors, it is really hard to explain to people that like indeed I'm running for local elected office, uh, am by definition a politician, but I do not want to do um, I don't want to be the person that you imagine when you hear the word politician.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Oh, that's awesome. So as you mentioned, kind of like there, like you see it as people are supposed to run for these seats to be able to serve their communities and stuff. As we've seen kind of recently with the Prince Georgia's County Council, actually been major special elections where where we've seen less than even 30 of all the residents come out to vote for the current county executive, one of the current uh county council members. We've had multiple county uh council members get moved from their council seats to to working in the county executive office, and then those seats have been appointed. How do you feel about all of this that's um that's uh going on when you have multiple residents who feel as if they are really not being or not uh allowed to choose who represents them. It's more so just they are they're being dictated to about who's gonna uh represent them in the upcoming election.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Ooh, that's a big question. Uh give me a poke if I start to get off to off topic. I'm gonna start by saying this is it's hard for me because I like these people. Like the human beings who are in these seats, you know, I'm not running for office because I wanna, you know, party with any of these folks. I feel like that's absurd, but I think that they're good folks, they're well-meaning in many ways. I think the challenge is that Maryland, like so many states, a state of machine pro politics, right? Like this is when I when I talk to people about the when I talk to people at uh on doorsteps, you know, I introduce myself as a Democrat running for office, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna vote for you, I vote for Democrats. I'm like, this is the primary. Like I am voting to ensure that I am a Democrat because then at that point I'm going to be elected because that's how our how our uh democracy functions locally. The challenge is that you mentioned that folks feel like they're not gonna choose to choose. They don't feel that way. That's that's real. They're their choices are being taken from them. And it's like all I can say to you is it's it's wrong. And the people who are doing it know it's wrong. Uh there is there is a trying to remember, pardon. I'm trying to remember the the name of the the law. So like there's legislation working through the statehouse to change the way that we handle this at the statehouse, like to change the standard that like I think it's a third of all of our uh elected are appointed rather than than selected by the people. That's outrageous. There's no reason that should be that way. And that's at the state level. So like this is a bigger problem than just here. Here in Prince Georgia's, I think everybody who is listening knows the problems. It is outrageous how this has worked out the last several months. And and you could really broaden it to the last several years, you know. Like, I have so much respect for folks like Angela Also Brooks, but like since her ascension to Senate, it's been like a cascade of folks being selected to lead rather than elected. Most recently, you know, you look at our council member at large, Walla Booket, I have a ton of respect for Walla. I think that it is highly likely that Walla will get my vote. She is the closest we have to uh a leftist or at minimum some sort of progressive. And that seat has a terrible history. If we get Walla, we will be doing better. I'd be really, really blunt about that. But the choice to move from her district to uh to an at-large seat was like a it's not great. It's not, it's not awesome. Like that's not how we should be doing things. And it's really obvious to everyone why that happened. And okay, so here's another small segue. I think one of the coolest things about running for county council here is like Prince Georgians are not fucking stupid, right? Like people, when I'm knocking doors out there, folks, the things that people have to, the questions people have for me are deep cut questions. People understand the the policies that are before them, they understand the politics of this place. And so it's tremendously insulting the way that our local elected are handling these elections. It's not like it is known at this point that who was going to get each of these appointments was decided back in December. Like that's unacceptable. And you know, I want to be really clear like none of that was illegal. There's like a court case that folks are working through at the moment. None of what's happening is is illegal. I'm I'm not a lawyer. It's probably not illegal, but it's wrong. It's immoral and it is not what people expect. And I think one of the hardest things about this race for me is I want to change what people expect out of our elected. I want to I want to make it so that when I tell someone that I'm I'm running to represent them, that they don't scoff. So I want to make it so that when when people, when people hear that I'm gonna serve one or two terms and then help ensure that public financing becomes like the standard rather than I want to ensure that people don't think that I'm just saying that until I get to Congress. I don't have any intention of being in Congress, right? Like I I loved my job before I did this. I would love to go back to my job. To me, we are at this crisis point where it's essential that we show people that democracy can work for them.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

That's amazing. Actually, that that's amazing. And it's even it's even like I say a breath of fresh air, but also surprising too. Not not for you personally, just to hear someone running running for office already say, like, my goal is not to keep climbing this ladder until I become president at some point, and I can just just like run run a politics and see the and see politics as a uh career move, which I feel like unfortunately you have a lot of people who look at running running for office as like this is my primary career, and if I leave, it'll only be for a lobbyist for some organization that has been giving me money this whole time. So, with that, I do want to transition to a conversation. You said that you are taking or that you are working within the uh public financing system. Can you please tell us about just what public financing is and why you decided to um do public financing?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Thank you. I love that question. I mean, I would not be running if public financing was not on the table. It's one of the things that make was a deciding factor for me in running for this race. The traditional way that one wins elected office is they go around to some of the county's power brokers, who many of y'all probably know, they get five, six grand ahead. Uh, and once they've got a sufficient war chest, they spend that money on things like mailers, on like paid, paid volunteers. And, you know, they they use that that funding to get them elected. This is this is the model throughout the country. So much of the structure of how campaigns work has been defined around that model. Like the expectation that you need to have a certain amount of money by the time you announce uh is built on that model. And public financing turns all of that on its head. Folks probably have heard, if folks have heard of it, they've probably heard of it because of uh our comrade up in New York, Zoran. What this does is it's first a commitment, or that commitment is that I'm not taking more than 250 bucks from anybody, period. Period, right? But I'm also not taking any money from corporations, from PACs, from developers, very importantly, in District 9. And, you know, that's a matter of morality for me, but it's also a matter of law, which is why this system is so important, because politicians can say a lot of things. I am legally bound not to take that money, which means that, you know, I'm gonna be very generous and suggest that, like, you know, if you take a$5,000 check from somebody, they're not necessarily gonna be like pulling all of your strings. But you know what you are gonna do? You're gonna answer the phone call. When I am taking, like, you know, most of my donations are like$10 to$25. I treat everybody like a human being. That that is the difference. Um, I don't care what some lobbyist thinks, because fundamentally, I'm not in office because of them, right? Like that's that's the intention behind this method. The challenge is that it is a lot harder. You know, you need hundreds and hundreds of donations to get you to get you there. And to be very frank, although our system is great, it is met with all the standard sort of challenges of a Democratic Party bureaucracy, you know, like this, this. Let me tell you, the getting the attestations needed, the receipts that you have to give to people, it's hard. It's like the bar is very high. And especially when contrasted with the norm. Normally you get a$5,000 check, bang, you're done, right? That's for me, I have to detail where people live. I have to get them to sign off on the fact that they are Prince Georgians. Um, and that's for every receipt. And I have to make sure they have a copy of that receipt. I have to save a copy of that receipt and then upload it. Like, so the bureaucracy is massive, but it's worth it, I think.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

So the money, so to clarify, the money has to come from Prince George's County residents. It can't be just from people within the state or people that you know who live who live out outside the state.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Not correct. So interesting. Thank you for sort of pushing me back on on topic. No, I can take money from anyone in the country, but the whole purpose of public financing is there, is the matching. So when someone gives me a small donation from inside the county, this is only from folks inside the county. I can take money from anywhere, but it's just, you know, a$200 donation. Cool. Well, that doesn't get matched. Right. When it's from people in county, the first$25 of a donation to me is matched at times seven. That's crazy. That's a lot of money. There aren't many opportunities in life that a normal person has to contest corporate money. Making$25 in a in a$200, that's a pretty good step in that direction. It's tiered after that. So like I think the first the the second$50, so$26 to$75 is times five, and then so on and so forth sort of tapers down. But the whole purpose of it is to make sure that those small donations really matter. That's that's how it works. That that funding, that matching is provided by the fair election fund, which we pay, we all pay into. And that funding is what is meant to change this system. So people are the elected officials, people running for office are dependent on the populace rather than lobbyists.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

That's awesome. That's that's awesome. And I love that you mentioned kind of like it, it makes it so you cannot take money from uh developers, the real estate lobby, police unions and stuff, because it was funny how you had like a few years ago when when um there were all these different development contracts that the uh county council was supposed to vote on, but it comes out that oh, majority of the county council is taking money from those, from those developers. So they had to have a whole roundabout legislation in the state house and Senate just to make it so that they can vote on these certain uh developments, even if they're taking money uh from them. And do you see it as if you don't take public financing, that it either opens you up to corruption from like uh taking taking the voice of developers, the real estate lobby, police unions first, or do you see it as just people having different ways to fund their campaigns?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

So this is a spicy take. Yeah, I think it's it's it's that's a it's a core part of the problem. Like if you are not taking money this way, then first and foremost, we don't know where your money's coming from. We know after the fact. Um, you know, lots of this gets really complicated, but it says something today is the last filing day for this phrase. It says something that one of the big moments of like political wisdom in this in this county is that you wait until the last moment to declare your running. Like that's a disservice to voters. It's, you know, it's it's it's just wrong. Like, and that the thing that kills me is like so much of the the like political wisdom of this county is about doing whatever you can to sort of strip power away from voters, to ensure that you ensure that you you get your seat by doing all that is possible to sort of remove the uh the externalities, the risk. And the risk is votes, voters. Like the risk is people getting their choose. Yeah, folks don't appreciate me saying it. And there's big problems, I want to say, uh like the fact that the fair election fund, you're not, I believe you're not, uh, you can't use it if you are an existing candidate, for instance. So, like, I'm a hundred, almost a hundred percent sure on that. Um, but like it makes it so that it's not easy to use. And that's part of the problem. I would love for it to be more easy to use. But yeah, I think that at this point, people who choose not to, it's a choice, and it's a choice that suggests that you care less about democracy than I do. Sorry. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Oh no, nothing to be on this podcast, there's nothing to be sorry about for saying, for saying what's true. So, with that, as we kind of transition, um uh getting more talking about your uh uh district and what's going on. I know that your district is, like you said, it's it's it's very spread out, suburban, mix of different uh different economic statuses and stuff. And we saw with this most recent, not the most recent quote unquote snow we were supposed to get, but the actual blizzard that we got, we saw that there was a lot of uh residents within your district who are facing challenges of going days upon days without having their uh snow plowed so people can get to dialysis and other and other medical treatments and stuff. Uh, can you kind of talk about how what happened with your district with the snow and also what your plan is? Um uh uh let's say that you uh do win to make sure that these same problems don't don't continue to happen where your your district is the most uh neglected when it comes to these infrastructure things.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yeah, that so in direct contrast with sort of my last comment, I'm a big believer in like giving folks grace. And I think that I don't I don't really want to pile onto the uh complaints against the accounting executive and the council about the blizzard. You know, they failed. I think they know they failed. You see lots of coverage on news, which is, I mean, it's just it's absurd at this point, you know, like going out in the street and telling people how great of a job you're doing when people are literally snowed in in their houses. It's like it's you know what we we all can point out when when Republicans are like, don't believe the things that are right in front of your face, it's it's embarrassing when we're doing doing the same thing. The questions of why this happened are a little complicated, but I think a lot of them, it's it's an issue of planning. You know, these it's hard because this is the sort of thing that American democracy is not great at. It's a contingency that you have to plan for. And it's a contingency that's expensive that you have to plan for. So, like our system of democracy is not designed to leave money sitting around in case of emergencies. It's designed instead so that when an emergency happens, you react to it. That is the opposite of how whether it's in business, uh, whether, you know, any other slice of slice of life, you prepare for emergencies. Our our system of governance dissuades one from doing that. So things I think the things that stand out most in terms of like this individual failure is that like it wasn't the snowstorm wasn't a surprise. So like there were some things that just don't make sense. Like, and I again I really don't want to kind of be like pointing fingers specifically, but like not sending students home with their computers, that's outrageous, right? Like, how did that happen, right? What are we doing, you know? Um, snow plow situation, you know, on a lot of levels, that's a failure. Like, you know, I live in I live in South County. Plenty of my neighbors own plows. That's like one of their side businesses. And you know, almost all those folks ended up plowing the streets in other counties because other counties were willing to pay them. They're willing to pay them more, they were willing to pay them in advance of the storm, not like after the storm had happened. And like, you know, it just I feel bad saying this, but we can't keep sucking at this stuff. We we got to have a higher standard. People who live here deserve, like, you know, you hear all the time Prince George's County is the second wealthiest black county in the in the country. Thank you, Charles County.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

I always laugh when people say that because I'm like, ooh, look at Charles County go a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Yeah, I know, yeah. We don't deserve these bad services. And I, you know, I want to make it really clear like that none of this, none of this is on the workers. These are these are failures, they're administrative failures. Um, yeah, yeah. Do you I'll I'll leave it there. I can I can expand a ton. I think it it also uh specifically to specific to my district, district nine is just habitually underserved. Everyone knows it, it's a given. They are just less concerned about doing anything, providing any service down here, regardless of what it is. And it's rough, you know. You know, if you're like me, I live on a farm. Like I was honestly kind of impressed and surprised how quickly uh the street got got plowed. Like my challenge was my a hundred foot long driveway, right? Yeah, that's that's brutal. In contrast, places like Clinton, like, you know, it's just not it's just not okay. And Clinton is hit by the added challenge of being unincorporated, so they don't have any really local government to help them with these issues. So they just they got nobody but the county. And we saw how that worked out.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Yeah. Do you you kind of um said this, but kind of going deeper into it, do you feel as if your district is ignored when it comes to the rest of the county? And then also, do you do you put some of that blame on the current council member for your district of not pushing the problems within within the district and fighting harder to actually make sure that the resources go go to your district, especially the the most south of the county, like you get to a brand brand new wide Akakik and places like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah. So um to make sure I get all of that because that was this is a layered question. I have big thoughts on each point at a point there. Um, first of all, I don't think our county or I don't think our district is ignored, but I think our district is seen as nothing but a resource. We are a resources be pluffed and spent and then forgotten about. One of the sort of pillars of my campaign is like this idea of ending the dumping ground politics. Like every crappy development that cannot be put someplace else in this county, there's the current fight about data centers. Every, every bad development that can't be put someplace else, they're going to dump it in in District 9. And the assertion is like, oh, well, we're not going to be that way, it's not by people. The trouble is that like we've got a decades-long history of environmental disasters down here. And every time, every time what happens is someone gets rich, overpromising some crazy development, things go sideways as they often do. And then the public is left to clean up the mess. You know, like we have like a lash plant. Like, how do we keep getting this garbage down here? We don't deserve it. So that's that's one point. The second point was on Councilmember Harrison. You know, it's it's interesting because when has it been really jarring while talking with with voters has been just like how aggressive folks have been about the assertions of corruption. It is hard. That's in, you know, in all my years doing this around the world, that's not something people say on a doorstep. That's not a normal thing that people complain about. When I when I'm knocking doors, people call out individuals by name are like, how is this person still in the government? How is this happening? I want to be really clear. That is not Sydney Harrison. Sydney Harrison, I got a lot of respect for her in part because we disagree. Me and Sydney are not the same. Our politics are different. He lives by his politics. And like you know Sydney Harrison did not tell anybody that he was not going to be pro-development. That's important. You know like that's folks got what they voted for with Sydney. And I and I actually really respect that about him. So when when people vote for me and I tell them like you're not going to get me signing waivers on developments, I've I've been real vocal about that. My hope is that when I don't sign those waivers, people aren't going to be mad at me. So yeah, I definitely when I the the the the degree to which I blame Sydney for any of this is that um I think his politics are wrong. And I think that the things he focuses on are incorrect. But I don't I think that he's super transparent about all of this and it's something I really respect. So like actually on another another slight positive note um you know he's done a lot of work in Brandywine to forward development that is lasting and sustainable. There's like a there's this there's this effort. I was really involved in all of the the local the local planning board things like that we had all of our our local plans are being reworked this year. And they did that in a really open and democratic process. Yeah it's not heavily attended but it's very open and democratic. It's really exciting to hear about some of like the uh the medical center stuff that's being done out in Brandywine. Like that's that's positive. That's cool stuff. And stands out in really stark contrast to something like data centers.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah. And with that let's definitely talk about data centers as we've seen the massive protests during the county council's kind of like data center hearings um especially uh what's been getting the most attention is the uh landover site about not wanting that that to turn into data centers but we've also seen people throughout the county talk about they don't want their their communities to also become a data centers. And we know data centers have been linked to disastrous environmental impacts have been disastrous when it comes to increases in utility bills, taking up all the water within the area as well also the fact that they do not create lasting jobs after construction you're looking at some maybe security jobs or some or some remote IT jobs for people don't even live within the county. What is your thoughts on um uh data centers coming to uh Prince George's so it's neat uh I think that this has been one of the breakout issues for me.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

It is very hard as someone running for office to go against the norm. Folks told me to shut up very clearly very early on on this issue and I did not and I think it's it's actually been you know months from now when I'm county council member I think I'll look back at that decision that decision to like have a principled stance on this issue and and I think that that'll be a big distinguishing part of all of this. You know, we live in a democracy and when voters tell you how they feel about something it is not your job to like reinterpret that you know thousands of people. I want to say this really clearly it is hard to be involved in democracy. America is hard. This life for normal working class people in this country is difficult. I've been around the world people will tell you greatest nation on earth super wealthy and everything like that. We live hard lives here. People don't have time to just be going to you know council meetings and everything like that. First of all the council meetings are in the middle of the day outrageous but people won't have time to just burn on those things. So like when thousands of people organize and tell you they don't want something it is your job to listen. And amazingly after first of all I want people to to pat themselves on their back and like give themselves their flowers for like for doing that work because better believe the council heard it. But amazingly what they choose to hear never stops to shock you. You know like they they hear like oh people don't want data centers in this neighborhood you know like so so uh I warned people really early on I was like you know one of the reasons I want to I have such a ferocious stance on this is that I know that our history is that if there's something that can't be put someplace else, it's going to be put down here. And not long ago, I took some some role in organizing folks around the county executive I guess not the county executive the the planning director who was selected by the county executive pushed forward this this legislation this proposed legislation that is allowing data centers by right into our rural and agricultural zones. That means district nine like when you say that that's where that's going right like weeks before that you start to hear some of the council members sort of change their tone. They're like oh no no data centers in our populated centers oh no data centers around people and that's when I knew I was like I know what y'all are doing. To her credit to her tremendous credit uh council chair Oriata had the opportunity to the standard would be for her to to go along with what the county executive said. She did not do that. And that's massive her choice not to do that um what you know whether political savvy or just standing on her values is a big deal. And it's really important that when politicians do things like that, that we hold them up and remember that they were on the people's side. In terms of data centers in general just like it's just it is yet another in like a long history of American boondoggles, right? Like I got to use the word boondoggles Joe Biden would be proud one thing that's helped Prince George's County is that all around the nation people are saying no on this issue. If they had been faster in getting them approved in in the county we'd be out of luck. It they were slow enough that all around the country people are saying we don't want this. So it's it was a lot easier uh for for folks to sort of get on board on this issue. So much credit to the organizers like the no landover data coalition. Seeing the work those folks have done like that that is what it is to be an organizer. I am an organizer by I can't say by trade because I you know I don't get paid but I've got a long history of organizing with yes thank you I've got a long history of organizing with DNSA so like I when I see people do it I am like just intensely impressed super touched and they're still doing it they're continuing to do it and that's important because those of us who have been around for a while from the days of Occupy from a women's movement from Black Lives Matter right like we know that people with power are relentless on these issues. So like that choice to mishear people, that choice to hear like oh we don't want data centers in our population centers, which is fundamentally not what anyone ever said. No one ever, no one was ever like oh we don't want data centers in my neighborhood. You know, this wasn't a NIMBY issue. People said we don't want them in the county uh and the choice by our elected officials to mishear that is a really standard choice of power, a power in politics. And I'm really touched and impressed that I feel like people are seeing through that and yeah it gets makes me feel really positive about about my neighbors.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

And then playing devil's advocate here is that do you what is your response to people or to some of the even current current council people who say that while we understand the the issues with the water utilities electricity environment jobs all the myriad of problems that we all see this will bring in so much money into the county and so much economic development so that so that we're able to fund fund some of these other projects what do you say to to those people?

SPEAKER_01 30:31

I mean they know better. They know that's not true. There are specific tax incentives and loopholes that have been levied for these organizations to ensure that they don't so what's frustrating to me is that I don't my stance on against data centers is not like set in stone. It is to me in an ideal world we would be capable of regulation. America's not capable of regulation. Maryland is not capable of regulation Prince George's County in particular is not capable of regulation. We cannot trust our elected officials to sufficiently regulate a harmful industry to the point that it won't be doing harm. They've just shown that we have no reason to trust them again. And so like yeah in an ideal world data centers wouldn't have to be bad. In an ideal world data centers could be community centric and like add jobs or whatever. That's not what's going to happen. And there's a sea of data at this point like reporting from our own task force reporting from the NAACP showing that all these promises are not true. And so when your elected re when your elected officials try to play devil's advocate and they're like oh well you know I want to hear both sides. There's no both sides on this issue there's there's the side of the people you're representing and there's the side of developers there's a side of of people with money and like normal no reasonable human being can can conclude that if it is in someone's money to interest to see something done that they care about the community. And we the public are not we we never are the people who make money off of things.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

No you're definitely right it's always it's always big tech corporations especially when we talk about the hyperscale data centers which even when they say oh well this will help help local businesses which hyperscale data centers don't even service local businesses they're serving these massive um AI projects which also this is this is a total just side this is not really a side note comment but what are your thoughts when it comes to having either candidates who who either speak out against data data centers or but you see them using like AI videos and and uh flyers and things like that. What are your thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_01 32:35

I love that that's such a it's such a fun question like this is one of those like TV gotcha type things like uh you know when folks you know folks are like oh Mara you're you're a socialist I'm like okay uh but yet you've got a job or yet you've got an iPhone I'm like yeah I I I exist in the world right like uh AI is a tool I don't have a problem with people using AI like um this is actually it ties really well into environmental issues like you know uh yeah you're roughly roughly in the same age age group as me like we were all told like recycling was gonna save us right so you save the world it's uh it's always it's always on the consumer it's always on the public to fix every issue you know like you know what I want to tell everybody listening like you using chat GPT is not the reason that AI AI hypers hyperscale data centers are a thing like absolutely uh these big companies are needing slash wanting these things for that purpose it is really interesting how how seldom our community our our conversations around AI uh around hyperscale data centers it's really interesting how seldom we touch on this the question of intelligence right like there is a reason that there is a sea of data centers in in Nova right like that's not that's not there to help us that's not that that that is not making your your stupid AI video right like and it's impressive how dishonest it is and how like cleverly cobbled together this message is that like if you if you don't like hyperscale data center stop using a chat GPT. You know the folks who are telling you that know that that's not the case.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Wow okay I will I will push back a a little bit on that I think me me personally while while as AI for chat purposes to like figure out um like what's going on in certain things yes definitely a tool I think when people use AI like pictures or this whole thing that we see now on Facebook where where like I tell you what my job is and then you create a little picture of me or even using AI to say hey answer these these like questions and I'll tell you what your job is as if you as a person don't know what you do already I think that that contributes to kind of like the use of of water with these data centers but also it's one of those things is it's like I get your point I don't want to put it all on consumers because that's what we always do. We always say oh it's your fault it's not the corporation fault but then it also is that thing of like recycling won't won't save us but like can you please recycle it's like it's like can can you do a little bit of it so but no I definitely get your point there with that. And then as we're uh talking just about like job kind of kind of around the uh jobs conversation uh and just and just money into the county what are your uh thoughts on this this new uh uh mini sphere that is supposed to be coming uh to the county and and I bring that up knowing knowing it's not in your district but the fact that you have a lot of people within your district who drive to DC and then Virginia to get to work and that with that mini sphere you're gonna have heavy increase in traffic a lot of difficulties from people from your district to get to and from and also the lack of transportation or public transit within your district as well. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

There's a bunch of things there first it's sort of a last thought on the AI question. I think one thing that's really hard is that I don't see it as a net positive for society worry even more than I worry about the environment honestly I worry about people I worry about jobs. You know my father is a is a visual artist um and like a ton of my friends uh you know have made that really hard choice like no one goes into the arts for money for a period in time you were able really to survive especially like this a period in time you were able to survive like off of digital art and everything like that. That's probably going away right like and that's not great. So often we, you know the promises of science fiction are like, oh yeah, this stuff is all going to make your life easier. Somehow we have selected for a path that like makes it so that we can automate the arts we can automate music we can automate all the things we we revel in in life but you still got to do your laundry um so I'll leave I'll leave that there. I I do think I I prefer not to use lots of that but it's it's it's still it's a tool. Okay, onto the subject of the sphere. I do not have as big of a beef with it as some folks do. I feel like maybe I have picked my fight in terms of data centers. And so I don't want to just be against everything but it is ugly and maybe stupid not the thing that I would like but if people people like it, I got no problem with it. Like so long as it's my concern is that like we shouldn't be paying for it as as somehow we always do I am ferociously against the public carrying carrying the debt for this. But I think that if any of the county executives promises on this issue end up working out that would be great. And it's in an area that makes a ton of sense you know like there's it's it is a development hub. MGM may not be my jam I'm not into gambling uh but like I got no problem with it. I do think that is really important how how wealth is captured. So actually especially as a district nine person I have got to highlight for instance the the MGM funds like the idea that that money was all captured um you know like the fund that came from it was limited to folks pretty clearly in district eight like that's rough man like you know no one is proposing that with data centers you'll notice right like people like oh why we put them in in the rural agricultural zone no one's like and we should ensure that the the money that comes in from those is only spent within five miles. Somehow that doesn't happen right like so yeah uh that that's that's one thing about the the sphere uh I think another thing you link to is transportation and it's it's like a core issue for me to me it is it is one of the most egregious ways in which district nine is underserved we just are an afterthought when it comes to connectivity and and part of that is like people look at the demographics of the region they see like the multiple then I think it's like what two and a half maybe it's maybe it's even more that two and a half cars per household on average is bonkers is just assume that that's how people want to live. Not that there's no choice right like I think I can say pretty comfortably no one wants to be you know risking their life on old Indian head highway every day. Like that's not a choice that people make purely out of out of love love for the game right like I think that one thing that's been really rough for the county in general not not only my district but in particular my district is just a continuous disservice and and really harm to our community directly linked to racism. I'm gonna be super blunt about that in how resources are are delved out. I mean I'm just gonna be super point it is outrageous that there is not a a metro at National Harbor because that's outrageous like the volume of development that happened there metro at National Harbor makes more sense than most of our existing metros in the district or in the county right like and somehow that couldn't happen right like we're just so used to being screwed um that I think in lots of ways that's that's tied to every other aspect of our running right we're so used to being screwed that we don't people stop expecting anything people stop expecting government to be able to deliver anything for them. And so like when I say things like what's the plan it's a smart plan on extending public transit down toward frankly toward Charles right like there is lots of political reasons to be against that but like if we care about the environment if we care about the people who live in this district like you gotta make that those connections easier. And that's that's something that's worth spending money on. The challenge uh and this ties it back into both the data centers and the sphere the challenge is short-term money versus long term money one of the issues of American government is like we are really good in part because of like you know four eight term uh four eight year terms right like we're really good at short-term thinking we really really struggle at long term thinking and and unfortunately transit is transportation is one of those long-term issues like you've got to commit to it over the long term and I intend to uh because you know I got a little two year old baby like I would like her to be able to grow up here.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

What is something that coming in as a council member you would like to do specifically to fix the transit problems within your district?

SPEAKER_01 40:52

I mean I think a big one is ensuring that it happens like there used to be buses that served on my district. Like lots of these things are choices based on what people believe about about the county and specifically about district nine I think that the changes that that will happen most urgently are not dramatic. You know like I think that like restoring bus service lots of these places, ensuring that like that we are included in planning processes down in South County is really important. I think that there's so much really cool stuff has gone into like the the our long-term transit planning like you know more paths more like I am one of my one of my least Maryland traits is like I'm a legend genuinely dog shit driver I'm terrible at driving and so like most of my life I've been you know a walker and public transit person. I live out on in the woods now and I run you know two, three times a week on what in my youth I would have called a highway like that's not great. You know there's no reason for us not to have uh more paths more trails more more sidewalks right like um so when you talk about transit transportation you're talking about all of that and I want to be really I want to be clear on that point.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Like I also want to note that that doesn't mean that we divest from our roads like that's the way that people get around we should do all we can to make those roads safer hopefully the ideal of public transit is to ensure that less people need to be on do you link the transportation issues to also the lack of high paying jobs within your district because you have a a situation and I kind of say similar to Charles County where you have a lot of people who who make a good amount of money living living where they live but the problem is in their surrounding area there are no jobs so they are forced to have to go to DC go to northern Virginia go out to Montgomery County for work just to afford the life that they live.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

So very short answer yes longer answer is you know you you can tell you you spent some time here because you can say that like everybody knows that one of the things that's hardest about running for office here is everyone knows what the problems are. Like when yesterday I'm I'm I'm taking a as I mentioned I'm a terrible driver right so I'm taking a uh an empower back from uh a local event to my house and I'm talking with the empowered driver and he mentions he was like oh just I just uh I was just about to go go go get myself sell something to eat I live over in uh Riverdale and I was I was just gonna go and get myself a bite to eat I was like oh what are what are you gonna get go get to eat and he's like there's nothing around here man I was like okay that's why I asked I thought it might be a new spot that I didn't know about right it's hard you know like everyone when you ask people what they want they say they want more restaurants that are not fast food places you know that's that's hard right like that's not what someone wants to think about their community. You know when I was uh recently filming filming a uh a video on uh public labor agreements right and there's a line in there about how we are promised you know like restaurants, uh business development centers and and something else. And instead we get like fast food places and townhouses. And my initial line there was uh instead we get Chicken shacks. And my my videographer is like, hey, what's a chicken shack tomorrow? Pump your breaks. It's like, maybe I shouldn't say it that way. But like everyone knows what I'm saying. You know, like everyone knows we've got 80 different fast food or 80 different fried fried chicken establishments, right? There we go. Whatever we're supposed to call them. We've got an abundance of those, but can't seem to get if I want to go out with my my wife and baby for like a little date night and we're trying to be fancy, we go to the Olive Garden. That's rough, man. That's rough.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

And to me of put it is it is mired in like racism too, because they look at a black community and say, Oh, y'all would love chicken, right? Especially if it's fried and especially if it's extra crispy. Great. Push those to the people. But then you go to like Montgomery County or even DC, Virginia, you see these like small privately owned restaurants from like people within the community. And kind of kind of one clarifying question before we move on. What is your or just what is your plan to bring bring more high-paying jobs with within the district so people can like like live and work within the same area?

SPEAKER_01 45:07

Okay, so that's there's two things there. One is you just touched on a point that's actually pretty important to me and actually is kind of counter to what folks might expect from a leftist, right? You know, my wife and I, as I mentioned, live on a farm. I've got friends all over the county. And you know, one thing that is pretty consistent is anyone who has ever done any sort of renovation on their house, you know it's miserable, right? Like I was we were trying to have our house built, and we went through a number of builders who all told us they would not build anything in Prince George's County. There is no reason for our processes to be as miserable as they are. And that that goes across the board. Like, and I I do want to say this actually got a lot better under under uh Angela Allsbrooks. The process of doing things legitimately in this county is miserable, and there's not much good explanation for it. Like, if you want to start a business, good luck. You know, if you wanna if you want to build an ADU, what do they call that? Alternative dwelling unit, like a grandpa grandpa suite or whatever. If you want to build one of those, good luck, not happening, right? Like there's endless rules and regulations on what people can do. Somehow none of that ever hits developers. So I think that that's one part of it. I think that we've got to make it easier for people to run businesses here. Like a part of, and I think you're a thousand percent right about racism. I think that the challenge is that racism is complicated. So it's it's not just that businesses don't come here and they're just like, we're just gonna give them fried chicken. It's also that like the ways that development happens structurally are are tied up in racism and everything. Um, yeah, so that's one part. Another part is that when we insert so it's it's funny because the idea of tax incentives to bring in businesses is not a bad idea. The selection of the businesses that that get the tax incentives is outrageous, right? Like we're offering tax incentives, for instance, to data centers when we know that, you know, like a a structure that might eat up as much electricity as a small city is gonna bring up 50 jobs. What's the logic to that? Right. Like, I do think that again, I mentioned it earlier, like the the medical innovation center. That's cool. That's cool stuff. Part of this is about figuring out, deciding what we want our future to look like. And to Councilman Harrison's credit, you know, like some real thought was put into that. That's like long-term planning. That will not happen until after he's out of office. So kudos to him for that. I think that there have been one of the most noteworthy things is that all you gotta do in a functional democracy is listen to the people because the people have great ideas. So is it right? No, later this month, I will be hosting, it's on the third, March 3rd. I'm gonna be hosting an event that is focused on, it's called Our Farms Our Futures, and it's focused on drafting legislation for agriculture, people, people working on agriculture. One of the things that I've experienced is that uh the folks inside government don't dislike ag. They just don't get it, right? So like they don't know anything about farms, they don't know anything about like what needs to happen. And like so much of that like sort of common sense change also would have a tremendous impact on business. I'll give you one quick example. If you live down in like real, real South County, um, and you ever have people who want to come out and visit you, one of the things you will find, there's no hotels out here. Folks can't, unless they're staying on your couch, they're SOL, right? Like, um there, and at the same time, we have this one of the coolest things about this county, one of the things I bring up when I when I mention there's a lot of cool stuff, but one of the things I bring up when I'm talking to my friends from Nova or whatever, uh, is that we have all these wineries, they're awesome, right? Like, uh, but those wineries cannot provide food. Those wineries cannot provide lodging. That's because of laws. That's like those are legal failures. And like, I think we can fix that. I think that's a really great example of like legislative change that can create business that doesn't require massive tax incentives, you know? Right. So I hope that was that's one of many ideas, but okay. That's an important one for the for the district.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

No, definitely, definitely. And then kind of as we round out here, um, uh, two things I do want to talk about. One is one of the parts that you mentioned was the healthcare. What are your thoughts on the the massive kind of sacrifice zone that has been made out of uh brandywine when you look at how many power plants have been put there? There have been different uh lawsuits within the um uh EPA, just just talking about how much people have faced uh higher rates of asthma, cancers, and things of that nature from these uh power plants.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

But this is what I talk about when I when I talk about my uh my like platform of no more dumping ground politics. You know, we know we know the health impacts uh of some of these historic developments. Tons of data. You know, data points often miss the reality of just people's lives being messed up. I have asthma. I've had asthma all my life. I think that when you're looking at numbers, it can be easy to forget that it's really it's people that you're hurting. It's really important when we look at these developments that we we don't approve things that we don't have the ability to properly navigate. Like I think that's really noteworthy. It's like we do have a real lack of sufficient power in Maryland. Um, I would argue that a big portion of that is because of the nature of our economy and the fact that we everyone's gotta make a buck off of everything. I do think in the long term, it'll be necessary to have like a greater means of generating power locally. I do not think we have the ability to do that without harming people right now. Not without like some serious regulatory change. And that's a problem. Like that's a that is a governance problem. That is not a problem that the people here created. That is a problem that the government here created. And I think that our way out has got to be through governance as well. Yeah. I don't want to I don't want to go on too long. If I didn't answer your question, let me know.

unknown 50:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

No, you're good. Um I guess there's just a clarifying question for that is what do you see as should be done about the massive power plants within the area? Do you want to see them decommissioned? Do you want to see them kind of just like regulated more? What's your theory of it?

SPEAKER_01 50:57

So uh I'm I'm glad you sort of pushed me on it because I actually did not uh make one of my larger points on this issue. We know that District 9 has undergone a number of like generational environmental harms. One of the things that's really frustrating to me as an environmentalist. People often point to my wife as the environmentalist. They're correct. She is more so than me. But I before I met her, I was an environmentalist. You know, okay. One of the things that really stands out to me is that we don't we're leaving money on the table. Right? Like these are these are the the EPA has told us that we effed up and that we have a responsibility to make things right by the people who live to live here. And we have kind of chosen not to for a really long time. Like, I think that it is important to see reparations done on those people, the people who are directly harmed by these environmental harms. Like that is that is a responsibility of folks who govern. Absolutely, it's a responsibility that I'll take seriously. Um, I can't make promises that I will win, but I will absolutely fight to ensure that the people who live there get compensation for the harm that's been done to them. Uh, and I think that's the that's absolutely the least that as an elected official you owe your constituents.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

That's amazing. And then uh final questions here is one is about you mentioned housing and the cost of housing and all that. What are your thoughts on uh uh rent stabilization? I know that that the county council passed rent stabilization uh one or two years ago, but the way that they set it up was that rent stabilization only affects homes that that were built before the year 2000. So that if if if your apartment building is is built in 2001, you have no type type of protections. Is that something that you want to see um uh basically change so uh so so that um every apartment building has to follow it? What's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 52:44

So I appreciate this. This is actually a hard question for me. And it's hard because of politics, right? The district that I'm running for, people refer to it as conservative. I think that that that the left-right vision of politics is a great example of that being useless, right? Like, but one thing I will say is that my district is when you look at the demographics of the district, it's actually startling. I have never lived any place in my life that is as heavily populated by like single family homes where the person who owns the house lives in it. So the reason I say that is that as an elected official, my responsibility will be to the people who the voters of my district, right? And the reason I note that is that my views are ferociously left of lots of the views that my constituents might have. You, you know, like if you if one Googles me, you'll find all sorts of really spicy takes on big political issues. But that's because I'm an organizer, an organizer, an activist. Uh, and you know, my role as an elected official will be more than just that. I I will remain those things, but that won't be all of it. All of that long lined up to say that I am ferociously supportive of uh rank control. And like folks can count on me as an ally on those votes, period. That being said, I'm not gonna be the champion on those. Like the the people who are who are writing that legislation should be coming from districts where that is an important issue. They will trust, they they absolutely and they know that they can trust me to support them on those issues. But you're not gonna see legislation on rent control coming out of the county council member for district nine, as it makes any sense, right? I hope that's really clear.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Like no, no, no, that is very clear, but yeah. You're supportive, but you understand.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

That's not my constituent's main concern.

SPEAKER_00 54:25

Yeah, you understand that that that like the the residents that have this as their biggest problem, it should come out of their district, but you are supportive of this. No, that's awesome. And then final question to you is what are two bills that that let's say you do win as the uh county council member, what are two bills that you want to uh that that you want to first sponsor?

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Um, I think so. There's one that I would like to see on that's definitely focused on agriculture. I think that I think that the reason I list that is that it will unquestionably, I mean, it won't be it won't be controversial. There shouldn't be any reason to fight over it. Um so I would I intend to work with the populace down here. It's one of the things I hope to do uh on the third, uh, to draft some legislation. And then not only will I be helping to, you know, present it to current council members, but absolutely if I'm uh if I'm elected, it would be really awesome for me to present legislation that was drafted by members of my district when I was running for office. I would love that. The second thing is probably there's some work being done on this already. So it'd be really cool if I got the opportunity to ensure that like we were more serious about our term limits, to ensure that the fair election fund is funded for the long term so that it can become the norm to change perhaps and and to help promote the idea of the fair election fund being the standard for us rather than than in in unusual side note. Um so I would love to do stuff like that. Uh yeah. If I had to choose to choose two, those would be the two I would really focus on.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

Awesome, awesome. And then final, final, final question is is not even a question, more of a statement for you. Can you please tell our viewers?

SPEAKER_01 56:11

Yeah, go ahead. Countywide, maybe also a countywide moratorium on data center. It's got to throw that out there as well.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Okay. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, that was that was great. Thank you for adding that in. So please, can you tell our our viewers uh how they can can support your campaign, follow you, know what's going on, social media platforms, website, all that.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

Cool. Thank you for asking. Uh, I'm so bad about remembering that. So, first name, last name, AmaraCrooms.com. Um, that is my website. Uh, you can find me on Facebook, on Instagram. I, you know, I would do TikTok, but why would I be doing TikTok? I've got a lot of videos, but it is I'm not done the move yet. It's one of the challenges of running a uh a publicly financed campaign is everything's through volunteers. Um but yeah, look look look me up there and also, you know, just straight up reach out. Like I am, I'm I'm really ferocious about this whole democracy thing. If you have thoughts about what you would like to see in the future of the campaign and the future of the county, uh amaraCrims.com is my website. Info at AmaraCrims.com is the info email address. I will I will personally get back to you if you reach out to me. Like that's a promise.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you again for being here, here uh uh with not just myself, but the audience and everyone. And I want to thank all of our viewers for listening and or watching today. Remember, this is a podcast, so please rate us five stars, subscribe, like, do notifications, all the little things that you do to keep this platform moving. And we will see you next week on Wednesday for another full episode of Left Handed Leftist Podcast. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 57:44

Thank you for having me. Really means the world. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

Thank you, thank you.