Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
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Authentically Detroit
Candidate Series: Vision for Detroit - From Pulpit to Politics with Solomon Kinloch
This episode marks the first in a series of interviews with candidates in the race for Detroit’s 76th mayor. First up, Donna and Orlando sit down with Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. to discuss his vision for Detroit’s future.
Rev. Solomon Kinloch, Jr., was born to the late Solomon, Sr. and Janie Kinloch on July 28, 1973.He has been a minister since the age of 14, beginning under the tutelage of rev. Robert Smith, Jr. at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1998, pastor Kinloch accepted the call to pastor at triumph church, in detroit, michigan. At the beginning of his tenure, Triumph's membership was less than 50 people. Under Kinloch's visionary leadership, Triumph church has since blossomed into a multi-site phenomenon, utilizing eight campuses and hosting fourteen weekly services for more than 35,000 members.
Extraordinary growth and dynamic leadership has helped drive Triumph's community outreach and ministry initiatives. Pastor Kinloch currently serves on the board of directors for various civic and community organizations. He is married to his best friend, and partner for life, Robin, and together they have one son, Kadin Elijah.
To learn more about pastor Kinloch, click here.
Up next. Reverend Solomon Kinloch joins Authentically Detroit to share his vision for the city as Detroiters prepare to select the 76th mayor. This will be the first in a series of interviews. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages.
Speaker 2:Founded in 2021, the Stoudemire is a membership-based community recreation and wellness center centrally located on the east side of Detroit. Membership in the Stoudemire is available on a sliding scale for up to $20 per year or 20 hours of volunteer time. The Stoudemire offers art, dance and fitness classes, community meetings and events, resource fairs, pop-up events, the Neighborhood Tech Hub and more. Members who are residents of the east side have access to exclusive services in the wellness network. Join today and live well, play well, be well.
Speaker 1:Visit ecndetroitorg. Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now let's in the kitchen. Hello Detroit and the world, welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's East Side at the Stoudemire inside of the East Side Community Network headquarters. I'm Orlando Bailey.
Speaker 1:And I'm Dinah Givens-Davidson we want to thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. We are very excited to be recording for a second time this week. Why? Because today kicks off our first in a series of interviews with candidates in the race for Detroit mayor. The 2025 election marks the first time Detroit will elect a new mayor since Mayor Duggan's 2013 win. So, without further ado, reverend Solomon Kinloch Jr was born to the late Solomon Sr and Janie Kinloch on July 28th 1973. He is the youngest son and the fifth of six children. God, they were having a lot of kids back then. He has been a minister since the age of 14, beginning under the tutelage of the Reverend Robert Smith Jr at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.
Speaker 1:In 1998, pastor Kinloch accepted the call to pastor at Triumph Church in Detroit, michigan. At the beginning of his tenure, triumph's membership was less than 50 people. Membership was less than 50 people. Under Kinloch's visionary leadership, triumph Church has since blossomed into a multi-site phenomenon, utilizing eight campuses and hosting 14 weekly services for more than 35,000 members, and counting growth and dynamic leadership has helped drive Triumph's community outreach and ministry initiatives, which include providing tens of thousands of free meals, offering annual scholarships to teens and various free community workshops that promote healthy financial, mental, physical and spiritual living.
Speaker 1:In 2020, pastor Ken Leck demonstrated his civic and community leadership during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Triumph Church began distributing free groceries to 1,000 families each week, with particular attention paid to seniors, the unemployed, disabled and single mothers. Triumph also attacked the digital divide in Detroit by distributing 1,000 free tablets weekly to students in need. Pastor Kinloch currently serves on the board of directors for various civic and community organizations. He is married to his best friend and partner for Life, robin, and together they have one son, kate and Elijah. Pastor Kinloch, welcome to Authentically Detroit.
Speaker 4:I am so honored to be here. Orlando and Donna.
Speaker 1:It's good to see you. It's good to see you. It's good to see you. You announced what was it a few weeks ago? Yes, since you announced. What is it like to be you since your announcement?
Speaker 4:Well, I see it as an extension and an expansion of what I've already been doing. I don't see it as an addition. I don't see it as an addition. Ministry is about people, and I believe that the mayoral job and position is also about serving people as well. So for me, there's no distinction between the two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Although I will say that I talked to a good friend of mine who is at a foundation and he said he'd asked around for examples of other pastors who had become mayors of big cities and he couldn't think of any. So this will be sort of a departure from the norm in our community and others.
Speaker 4:Well, maybe slightly different in Detroit. In Detroit you've always had pastors who were full-time, that served in full-time municipal capacities, absolutely, and city council. And when you look across the country, you see senators, you see congresspersons. You go to Richmond and Dwight Jones passed at the First Baptist Church and he was the mayor of Richmond for two or three consecutive terms. When you go to Mansfield, tennessee, texas, I believe the mayor there, currently in Texas is a mayor and a pastor.
Speaker 4:So you know, when I'm often asked that question, I always ask why did it stop? Why did it start? Because I'm not the first president and the first person to decide to do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that's good to hear. Thank you for sharing that and I'm not at all disputing the value. I think that you know in a lot of instances, people, some people feel as though the church, the black church has moved away from some of the original mission of justice and everything that animated the church during the civil rights movement feels to feels like to some extent is no longer in place in the same way it was in that era. Can you speak to the values that you have brought forth as a pastor during your tenure at Triumph?
Speaker 4:I always have believed, and I've been conditioned with my religious conditioning and faith, that the church should not be a pedestal to promote a person, but should be a platform to lift an entire community of people. That's what our history and our heritage, that's the narrative, our script and our story has been about. And so when I assumed the pastorage of Triumph Church, I came in with that perspective. The first year I was there, in with that perspective, the first year I was there, I started African American Spirituality Celebration and I brought in Dick Gregory I was a 24-year-old preacher and brought in Judge Greg Mathis and Kwai Sam Fume, who was the president of the NAACP back then, because I wanted those that were partnering with me in ministry to realize that it's not just about what we do on Sunday but it's about the impact that we ought to make Monday through the rest of the week. And so I've carried that for the last 27 years, with that mantra that real ministry is not just what we do in the building but what we do outside of the building, just what we do in the building but what we do outside of the building.
Speaker 4:And I agree that this is a great and wonderful opportunity to reimagine not just Detroit, our community, but also reimagine and take the church back to the roots of not just spirituality but emancipation and liberation and liberation. And this gives us a great opportunity because we're still positioning the church to be an unrivaled place in the hearts and minds of black people. Politicians come to the church and use the church for their benefit, and we allow it. When do we get to the place where we understand that the church ought to be a platform and a tool that we use to bring our community liberation? So when somebody says, why get into politics? We're already there. We're not just using it as a platform for us. And I think that's the key element that my candidacy will bring.
Speaker 3:And I just have one more question on that line and that is that you know I think there was a broken trust between some people in the community and the church. Yes, in the past few couple decades, as many churches started to, you know, wander into prosperity, christianity and this idea that you know, being Christian was about getting rich and accumulating wealth, and that for me was a breaking point, and I think it probably was for other people. Can you speak to how your ministry has handled that and where your values have been during that time frame?
Speaker 4:Although we're in a culture, we should not be compromised by it. We've allowed the obsession, the preoccupation of people getting to the point of trying to make sure that the world acts like the church, and we've neglected our responsibility to make sure that the church is not acting like the world. The privatization of religion, I agree, has destroyed the history and the heritage that the black church has been built on. It was never about me, mine, I. It was always about how do we use this in order to effectively bring and yield qualitative life to the people we've been called to serve. We weren't called to conform to society, we were called to transform society, and that has been a mantra with me growing up at New Bethel Church.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk about that. That's what I was going to ask you about, you know under the tutelage of a Reverend, robert Smith Jr, my grandfather actually moved to bring him to pastor at New Bethel after Reverend Franklin got sick and passed away. Yeah, so I always have like this connection. Yeah, oh, yeah.
Speaker 4:You are the reason that not only New Bethel got blessed, detroit got blessed. You are the reason that I'm blessed and I was put in a position to even be doing what I'm doing right now. Growing up under the tutelage of Robert Smith Jr is something I'll treasure forever, because he taught me that church was not about building a building. He taught me it was about building people, seeing lives restored, broken lives being blessed and being put back together again. And I saw him not just concerned about the spiritual health of people, but he hosted Black Bank Day, motivating people in the 80s and 90s to control your destiny by controlling your dollars.
Speaker 4:Having people like Don Davis, who was the president back then of First Independence and so many others, and Elliot Hall and Roy Roberts when I first met them I was a teenager sitting on the pulpit at New Bethel Church because he understood the heritage and the honor that he was gifted when he assumed the pastor.
Speaker 4:He was standing on the shoulders of Reverend Clarence LeVon Franklin, who was not just a tremendous preacher and iconic leader, but he was also a civil rights leader and fighter who marched down the streets of Detroit with Dr King arm in arm and union leaders Reverend Clay, yeah, and all of those.
Speaker 4:And so to grow up in an environment where I would hear on Saturday night and Sunday night, rather before he even got ready to deliver his sermon, he would go on these dialogues and discussions about racial issues that were confronting our community. So that was embedded in me and I saw how he championed. Back then we had the iconic Coleman Alexander Young, and the preachers were in a different place, they were together. I saw rallies for Coleman Young being hosted and held at New Bethel Church and then we left New Bethel and he would go over to PA Brooks Church. St Paul and Aretha would sing and Reverend Jackson would come in, and so the church was always a part of the political establishment. And I started to ask myself the question when did it stop and when it did? That's where people started distrusting the church, because they didn't see the church the way that they were accustomed to see the church in our community.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you this question too, and even in just our conversation, like I'm hearing hints and notes of the course for anybody to center black life, our triumph and our despair when trying to run for mayor of the city of Detroit, a majority black city, talk to me about your lens of racial equity and how unapologetically and unashamedly how that plays out in the city.
Speaker 4:Exactly. It's amazing to me that black people don't want you to talk black and that black people don't want you to talk about black issues. We cannot love other people properly unless you love yourself. The words of our brothers and sisters that's inscribed on the walls of their museum is that we should never forget, because the Jewish community understands that any people, any demographic of people that does not remember their past is destined and damned to repeat it. And we find ourselves in a place, space and position today where we've forgotten that we are mighty people, come from a mighty history and a mighty heritage. And when you look at the fact that we're in a city and we do have to talk about this, we have to talk about it A tertiary conversation.
Speaker 3:We have a mayor who is colorblind, and you know when colorblind exists, that means they're not looking at you, that means that you are invisible to them and they are going to do whatever they need to do. If you look at what's happening in our city, downtown, where most of the money that our taxpayers aren't getting is going into downtown building homes for people who are not us, investing in businesses for people who are not us, what about us? And I think that there's this unwillingness to acknowledge-.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Tam Howard. What about us?
Speaker 3:Yes, right, tam Howard, this unwillingness to acknowledge this divide. So one of the things that we've been trying to do, and something that's been a passion of mine, is the Black Detroit Democracy Project to remind black Detroiters that we have democratic rights and we have to, that we that democracy is more than just voting right. Democracy is power, and, just like worshiping is not just on Sunday, democracy is not just on election day, and I think, if we understand this every day, that we have to practice our power and we have to figure out how to hone it. One of the challenges in Detroit is that there is this feeling that downtown and that wealthy white people control all of the politics in our community, that if Dan Gilbert wants to see something happen, that's what's going to happen, and so I'm wondering how you feel about that and whether or not you feel as though there's a pathway for creating a new politics where people in this community have at least as much sway. As a white man who doesn't live here.
Speaker 4:I think this is a tremendous opportunity to discuss the fact that we are void, in many places and spaces, with African-American leadership and nobody wants to address it.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to talk about that.
Speaker 4:We're absent of that representation from a congressional level. We're absent of that representation from a senatorial level that reflects us.
Speaker 4:And the mayoral seat when you have a predominantly African-American city. I believe that this presents us with an opportunity to give voice back to those who feel like they're voiceless and don't have a say in the matter, and that's why I got into the race. One of the things that I was amazed at is when we even suggested having the launch at Fox Theater, is how much resistance I got from some people for suggesting it, because they suggested that's not us. How is it you don't go?
Speaker 1:down there Parking costs too much, Reverend Kenlock.
Speaker 4:How is it that we're in Detroit and you're talking about a place and a space in the city of Detroit you don't have access to? At the end of the day, we have to change that mindset and I believe this gives us an opportunity to change the mindset. That's one of the reasons why I do see and sense across the country so many African-American pastors getting involved in politics in a different way than used to be, and that's why you see a parallel of the pulpit and the church. We see it in other communities. It's already been weaponized and used as a platform Many times in our community, people come to discuss us and talk to us only during election seasons.
Speaker 3:So I agree with all of that. But I want to get back to my question about power. Right, because the way I see it is, corporations are the customers of the city of Detroit. Right, as citizens we have some power, but most black Detroiters feel more like subjects than like citizens, like our government is not designed to meet our needs and in fact, our government is designed to help invest in the business class. If you step in our parking lot, if you parked back there, you can see this new Chrysler plant.
Speaker 3:Hundreds of millions of dollars went into building that plant without building any of the protections of environmental protections that are necessary to actually even within the zoning rules, violating zoning rules to put this plant right next to people.
Speaker 3:And we always say, well, it's for jobs, but it feels like if we're trying to subsidize businesses, a bottomless pit of money there's for jobs, but it feels like if we're trying to subsidize businesses, there's a bottomless pit of money, there's no amount of subsidy that is too much. And at the same time we have people who are overtaxed by $600 million and the government says, oh, we can't afford to pay that back. It's not fair to the rest of Detroiters for us to give you a break, and the people who aren't getting the break, the people who are overtaxed, are the people who vote. The people who are getting all of these subsidies are people who don't usually even live inside of our community and vote, and so my question is how would a Kenlock administration begin to balance those scales and put power back into the communities that actually are supposed to be served by the mayor?
Speaker 4:Because a Kenlock administration wouldn't allow the conversation to be conducted and we invited to the table after it's already been designed. We need to be a part and co-creators and designers in our own community and our destiny. That's why the biggest part of this is not waiting on other people to do for us to empower people, equip people and know that they can do it for themselves.
Speaker 4:Eddie Gall of Princeton University said something on the title of his book. He said we have to become the type of leaders that we're looking for. He said we have to become the type of leaders that we're looking for, and the type of leadership that we need, I believe, particularly in moments like this, is to not go into communities and will your will and lower your agenda over people, but bring people together in partnership. I mean, just think about the ESAC Coalition and what you've been able to do in your long history of economic development. We've been locked out of too many places and spaces at the end of the day and we have had to make it happen with limited resources. Why not start the conversation by saying here are the community influencers that we have in our community. These are people in our community who are already doing the work. You coming in and telling them what's the panacea and what's the solution? They're already here, they already got a model to follow. Let's put them at the table with the resources and the relationship with the union leaders, with the corporate businesses, the people that are really interested in investing in the future health of this particular city, putting them at the table with the influencers, with the advocates and the activists, and building a table. That's what we're missing. That's what you see in Atlanta but you don't see in Detroit. There's the absence of a table, or if it is a table, we ain't got a seat at the table and what we need to do is make sure in my administration or whoever's administration, that that table is set so that people are coming to the table co-creating and not being lorded over and not being wielded over, because you already have a template and a plan in many instances of this getting done.
Speaker 4:I think it's an excellent opportunity and I've talked to community leaders, I've talked to the philanthropic community. I mean, just think about it when you look at all of the foundations in this city that's given out millions of dollars. When was the last time somebody asked about not how much is in endowments? When was the last time somebody asked about how much money is being distributed in our community and what could happen if that was being invested in holistic visions? Because we say we want to help kids and we want to do this, but we got to remind ourselves you can't educate a child and the child hungry, you can't educate a child and the child ain't got parents who ain't got no jobs, ain't got a roof over their head. So what we have to do is make sure that we are fixing all of those arenas of inequity that's bumped up against those children.
Speaker 4:And so the way to do that is to say what's the holistic vision? Yeah, we got a foundation. We out of bankruptcy, but now we got to build a house and we got to build a house so people can live in. When you got a family and it haunts me every time I think about it where three generations of one family is in a car, homeless, and two kids end up dead in a city with this much resource and this much relationship, somebody would have the audacity to ask why you wouldn't stay seated on the sideline and in the bleachers, why you wouldn't stay seated on the sideline and in the bleachers. Somebody got to at some point decide listen, we got to get up and do it if they're not going to do it for us and Outliner did a great survey when they said listen, 58% of people don't even believe that institutional politicians care about their concerns.
Speaker 3:Right and black or white. Black or white, I'm trying to remember the name of the lady who said black faces in high places cannot save us right, not unless they are connected to the people organized to try and do things. So you have some interesting visions, I think, 10,000 housing units. Yes, okay, where will those housing units be?
Speaker 4:Well, one of the things that we're doing to the mic, Pastor Ken. One of the things that we're doing, Talk to the mic, Pastor Ken Lott. One of the things that we are doing is listening. As I said before, it's not luring or willing our agenda on people. We want to hear the concerns of people. One of the things we know is we have a shortage of affordable housing in this city.
Speaker 1:It's a crisis. It's a crisis, it's a crisis.
Speaker 3:but it's a crisis and the mayor will say look, I built all this affordable housing. He's building studio apartments downtown, charging the maximum for people at 80% of the area median income, and the area median income is almost $70,000 here. The Detroit median income is about $37,000. So 80% of $70,000 is higher than the Detroit median income. Therefore, we're locking Detroiters out of these studio departments. In my apartments, I call it a great big dormitory that we're building downtown. We are attracting high school, I mean college graduates in and young professionals.
Speaker 4:Because the studio apartment is not for a family.
Speaker 3:And even when they say okay, 20% of the units in this building are for families. 20% of the units in this building are for families, for people at 80% of the AMI. 20% of those units are the studios, and so the one bedrooms and two bedrooms are the ones that are at market rate. And then you have some developers like the Illich's, I think. They have a new building where they're not going to have any with public subsidy, not have any even unaffordable, affordable units, just all market rate, all luxury rate apartments. So it's no surprise to me, working in a city where the mayor opposes single family housing development because you haven't seen that built in the past 10 years opposes building housing in many neighborhoods where there's the greatest need, because we are not in the strategic areas where he wants to invest. It's not a surprise to me that we are dealing with this housing shortage because those of us in the community have been arguing this for years and have not been heard. So, once again, those 10,000 homes. You're going to listen to people.
Speaker 4:Yes, and the other part of this. You have 60,000 properties in the land bank alone and the other part of this you have 60,000 properties in the land bank alone.
Speaker 1:What we have to do is make sure Structures we have we have 60,000 structures in the land. Bank Properties Okay properties.
Speaker 4:But what you have to do is give people an opportunity. The way we let other people access real estate, we got to give our people an opportunity to access those real estates, and we know the deficit and the debt that they're in, so we have to create equity and opportunity for them to be able to purchase the homes. So that is where I talked about the greatest down payment program. Also, on top of that, we've got to give people an opportunity to repair those homes, so they need funding and assistance for that Also. You have people who are in homes that they are renting I they need funding and assistance for that Also. You have people who are in homes that they are renting.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, let's go back. So you see it as a role of government to help private homeowners?
Speaker 4:repair their homes.
Speaker 4:Well, I see the job in the office of the mayor not only to communicate vision.
Speaker 4:I see the job of the mayor and the position of the mayor to convene the conversation for a vision.
Speaker 4:The mayor's office, all of our options and opportunity are not just within the income that comes through the city.
Speaker 4:There are partners, stakeholders in the city that also have a responsibility and a stake to be invested in the future health of this city and a stake to be invested in the future health of this city, and I believe the mayor holds a tremendous amount of opportunity to be able to put together a table and say listen, this is the overall vision in this community. We know school is a part of it, we know infrastructure is a part of it, we know housing is a part of it, and so having those holistic conversations so we're not just shooting in the wind but we are making decisions that get us closer to the overall vision that the citizens of the city want to see and the impact that they want to see happen- I want to follow up with you on the education Because you know well I'll say this and this, and Mayor Duggan certainly has done so, and I think any mayor worth their salt trying to be mayor of the city of Detroit has had this conversation somewhere or another.
Speaker 1:In the fact that performance, a piece of the performance, should be based on the ability to grow population, and I would posit that population growth has sort of been at a stalemate because of the school system, not just from its performance, because I actually think that DPSCD has some of the greatest teachers, highly trained educators, in the entire country and state, but it's reputation, and I know that the mayor has limited power over what the schools do. But it is also symptomatic of why people leave when their children become of school age. If they don't want to send them to private school or have the money to send them to private school, they're leaving to try to go to a better school district. Talk about your education vision for the city of Detroit, even though you're not the superintendent, but I think you probably have one right, yes.
Speaker 4:So one of the things that I think has to happen is that the office of mayor has to continue to build relationship and camaraderie with the school district, that we have to be strategic partners together, because you can't have one succeed without the other. There have been so many options that have been explored to the extent of should the mayor? Someone just asked me the other day in another interview should the mayor have some seats on the board? Should you know what is the exploration of what that power should look like and that has been put to the voters and put to the citizens? I'm never for hijacking democracy, but I am for doing what's necessary in order to ensure that our kids are not being continued to be used as guinea pigs while we're trying to figure it out that we have to have options on the table to say what is the plan, what is the metrics? How do we achieve this in a timeline that not only affects people down the line but affects people now?
Speaker 4:Dr King talked about it. It's the fierce, but affects people now. Dr King talked about it. It's the fierce urgency of right now and the Kenlock administration will work with the fierce urgency of right now. That means is it a need for strategic partnership in overall leadership, vision, personnel, staffing or resources?
Speaker 3:there are models across the country, so many resources, yeah, you know you have a recreation department, a health department, you have food programs, you have programs on. We don't have a youth department in detroit is maybe that's a question. Do we need a youth department? Because that is within a mayor's domain and if we we have to be in.
Speaker 4:You get it, but see, you're a leader in the community. We have to be in a place where we're intentional about what type of returns. We're only going to get out of it what we put in it. So if we're not putting nothing in it, why are we expecting to get anything out of it? And our people are not getting anything out of it.
Speaker 3:So there's wonderful models and there's wonderful opportunities for partnership. I want to ask you something a little bit off this track, though, because another area of concern that some people have about voting for somebody who is a leader of a church is a concern about social issues and social values. Whether or not people I think a lot of people have blamed the church for, you know, abandoning the Democratic Party at times certainly men because of women's reproductive rights or because of attitudes about LGBTQ community. Where do you stand in light of those social issues? How do you see your leadership being one that can serve people who may be different?
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, one of the things that we always have to remember is that a person's religion and faith is their choice, their private choice to express and live out their adoration and glory to God. But our preference and our choice should never superimpose the choices or be in prison on other people to share our same sentiment. And so, as a person, as people, we have a right to worship God however we choose to worship God and however we want to walk that out. But when you talk about mayor, everyone has the right to have equal protection under the law, and so if I'm running as mayor, my job would be to protect that. Whether you're white or black, whether you're rich or poor, whether you learned or GED or no diploma at all, whether you're straight or gay, it would be my responsibility to make sure that everyone is treated equal.
Speaker 3:Okay, what about in your church? You have 40,000 members. Yes, are people treated equally when they worship with you?
Speaker 4:In every church in America. I'm not sure why it's a hot topic. In every church in America, in all of our community, we have people white or black, rich or poor, straight or gay who serve in any capacity in the church, one of the things that we got to always remember, and it's always interesting to me when people look at the church as if it's a church populated with people that come from outer space.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 4:Dr Frederick Sampson used to say the church's address is a compilation of the city's addresses or the Metroplex addresses. And so the people that make up the church are the people that live in a community. They're not coming from a different place or space, and so they just congregate in a particular space on Sunday morning. And so how we treat the people in that space is how we continue to treat people who go about to their own personal spaces and places.
Speaker 1:I hear you talking to a lot about convening. Right, you have a vision, but your vision is sort of tertiary to the vision that you plan to amplify in talking to community, right, and you know, I always believe in gathering communities. Where I come from, whether we're at church or whether we're at I don't know the library, and you know communities in the city of Detroit now there are whole communities without access to a library. How do you feel about the state of our library system and what do you plan on doing about it?
Speaker 4:Education is paramount, and one of the things that we need to do is look at the 13940 square miles of this particular city and look at how we move forward from a holistic vision. Whether it's education, whether it's library, we're talking about a multitudinous number of resources. We just talked about a few minutes ago, we talked about recreational centers. There has to be a plethora of resources that's made available. We come from an environment where our parents taught us you know, if you got time to watch television, you got time to grab and pick up a book, and so one of the things that we want to do yeah, one of the things we want to do is make sure that we are partnering our children and our resources in a way that we can leverage them. We already know the needs in our community.
Speaker 4:Covid not only uncovered some stuff, but it has exasperated some stuff. We already knew we had dis-ease and deficits in our community, but COVID took it to a whole nother level. And when people ask, you know what are you going to do? What I've been doing delivering services to people. Yes, we need to make sure the lights stay on. We need to make sure that 911 calls get answered. We need to make sure the trash get picked up, but we also need to make sure that we're not just maintaining and sustaining that we're building and we're creating and we're thriving, and I believe this is an opportunity to look at all of the resources that we have available. But we need to continue to build on and ask people in the community. Every community may not need the same thing, every community. When people say equal, you know some communities may be better off than other communities. So we have to go into the community and say what does this community need and be able to fill those deficits and those particular gaps.
Speaker 3:That sounds good to me, but I have some questions about the brain trust right when I think of Coleman Young really becoming mayor. He was a great leader who surrounded himself with great leaders to help form this brain trust, to reconfigure Detroit and reimagine what Detroit would be. What does your brain trust look like? Who are your people? Have you figured any of that out, and or how will you select the people to lead in your administration?
Speaker 4:One of the things that I think is disheartening is that when we overlook the brain trust, the giftedness and the talent that we have in our community, and that the people in our community are not being given a chance, you have people who don't have to come in and learn how to do the work. You got people in this city that already knows how it work. They're not given the opportunity the way that I think that we can Just like. We're not leveraging the resources. The resources ain't just money. The resources also the brain capital, the trust that we have in our particular community, and what we would do is present opportunities in order for us to tap into that. I remember there was a major and you spoke about it before we got on air. There was a major entity coming into the city or adding another plant into the city, and they were looking for employees. They were going around and they were having job fairs, but they still were not tapping into the volume that they wanted to see. They came to Triumph Church and within a week or so, turnaround 3000 people showed up Sometime. In our community, we just talking to the wrong people and sometimes we are being represented by the wrong people, and so one of the things that we would do is tap into the resources that we already have. But the other thing is we are under no delusion and illusion.
Speaker 4:The mayor of the city of Detroit, or any mayor governor, does not run the city by himself. You have deputy mayors, you have chief of staff, you have chief operating officer, you have chief financial officers. That got us out Duggan and nobody else got us out of this place by themselves. You had the best and the brightest. What I am suggesting is let's continue to build on that, but let's not overlook the people that are already here, that have the expertise and the capability.
Speaker 4:You don't build what I build. The other part of this. That's what makes me a viable candidate, because I built something. It's different when you go in and you manage something. When you've built something, I don't get money from the city of Detroit, so there is no conflict of interest. The city ain't gave me no grant. That's the other guy, and I'm not saying there's something wrong with that. I'm saying that we need to do that. But one of the things that we've been able to do, we've been able to motivate, we've been able to speak hope to people. The mayor of the city has some healing mechanism that he has to do in leading the city and speaking hope to people who feel like they're in a hopeless situation, who feel like they're in a hopeless situation.
Speaker 1:Can you talk a little bit about? This is something that comes up in every mayoral election around the priority of safety. I think that there is a perception around safety in the city of Detroit that voters have, and I think that sometimes that perception is different from what the reality is. Talk to me about how you see it. Talk to me about how you see policing, right and surveillance, community violence intervention. You know a tremendous amount of work going on in that area.
Speaker 4:Talk to me about your vision for public safety. Well, one of the blessings I have had is that at least two former police chiefs for the city of Detroit have been a part of our fellowship and our faith, and one is our chief of staff and so the other a third was the chief of police in Dallas, Renee Hall who continues to be a part of our faith and is even a part of our campaign is, when you talk about safety, you have to ask yourself how do you qualify that? Because if it's one child, it's too many children. If it's one person, it's too many people. So what we have to do is make sure that it's not just affecting a small demographic, but it's affecting everyone.
Speaker 4:One of the things that when you talk to officers and you talk to police, they understand that we need to update and upgrade a 911 call center system. You want to make sure that we're able to decrease the time and accelerate the responses. That it was designed for cellular, but it was not designed for cellular. It was designed for landline, and so we need to look at ways to accelerate that, to make sure that we continue to do what is being declared now, that all calls are being answered. They're just being answered with a quicker time.
Speaker 1:What do you say to the young black man like myself from the east side of Detroit who will say police, don't make me feel safe, but I am concerned about public safety, but I ain't calling the police because, I don't feel safe when the police are around. What is the overall vision for Black Lives Matter?
Speaker 4:Well, when you talk about trust, trust was not broken overnight and anyone that comes to this table any microphone and promises that they'm saying let's not just engage people on Election Day or during election time. Let's continue to partner with people, educating them, holding platforms, forums, seminars, putting out message so that people can understand what is happening and what we're trying to do to fix it, and not just do it as a part of a platform. That's the reason there's so much skepticism, because people just thinking you're just saying something to be saying something and at the end of the day, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 3:I'll go. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:I don't want to but at the end of the day, I think what has to happen is we have to have a lot of conversation. We have to health professionals do you have on that force in order to adequately meet the need of non-emergency 911 calls? What programs do you already have in place that is going to help foster better relationships between the police force and the people that live in this particular city? What type of training programs do you have in place that will continue to engage people but also making sure that we are giving nobody a license and authorization in our community to make our mothers and our women fear for their lives? We still have to feel safe while we're ensuring that we're treating people with dignity, integrity and respect.
Speaker 3:So one of the initiatives that's taking place in Detroit right now to supplement what policing is doing is community violence intervention or shot stoppers. Where do you stand on community violence intervention and expanding that in the future administration?
Speaker 4:Well, if you listen to my whole platform, that's what I've been harping on. I mean about time, people who are already out there doing the work. All we did so when people say, well, where did that come from? That's how it works Finding people who have the trust, finding people who are already out there doing the work and making sure that we continue to give them the resources in order to make that happen. We have to be able to identify and assess all the tactics that we're using to enforce safety but, at the same time, making sure we're doing it in a way that we're not robbing people of dignity and their rights.
Speaker 3:So you know, staying on that topic for a minute, you know there's a lot of people who have concerns about ShotSpotter as a technique for crime prevention. And surveillance and surveillance. What are your thoughts about ShotStopper and why is ShotStopper better than answering 911 calls?
Speaker 4:I'm getting mixed reports, like you, about that, and so what I'm interested in doing is listening. We just started our listening tours. I'm interested in listening a little more about that. If you talk to the police department, they will have one perspective, because they believe that it's an effective tool.
Speaker 1:But when you talk to residents, we spent $7 million on it.
Speaker 3:But if you look also at studies in city after city after city, where people, not police firms like you know, when people ask me how my organization is doing, we're doing great, but sometimes you need somebody else to come in and take a look, especially when it involves public safety.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and so you know I'm not interested.
Speaker 3:I mean because nobody's going to really.
Speaker 4:You know, every year they audit my finances because not because they don't trust me, just because that's a way of, that's a form of accountability and one of the things that we have to be sensitive to the fact, and what I will not do is lie to people and give them false promises. And people say anything on a campaign. That's why we're suspicious of institutional politicians. They'll say everything on a campaign and then when you get in there and you lift up the hood, you discover that there's a whole lot of other issues that you didn't see coming, and even those that are running Nobody running is the mayor, no, so I understand that you can't see coming.
Speaker 3:And even those that are running. Nobody running is the mayor, no. So I understand that you can't make promises, but speaking of the hood, people are like wait a minute. I called 911 and they didn't come. And you're going to listen to some machine tell you there's some shots. Why would you listen to this technology and I'm still not getting heard? When you had that block party that became blew up last year, people have been calling 911 like crazy.
Speaker 4:It's not as though there's not access to information about things that are happening in the community and I totally agree that we need to continue to have conversations and explore best practices in any arena of the way we do business. We don't want to do anything, but we want to explore. But we don't want to do anything that robs people of dignity at the cost of saying it's profitable.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what, if I call the police and they don't come, my dignity feels robbed. And they don't come, my dignity feels robbed when I go downtown. You know, listen, I live off of the Riverwalk so I'm on it. Often when I go downtown and I'm on the Riverwalk, you know I love it right. Sometimes I'm tripping over police. It's like can these police get out of my way? They got these little metal detectors and nobody's got guns. And then there's somebody on the east side of Detroit or somebody on the west side of Detroit calling the police and there's no police. They say we need poor police. I'm like, just go to the riverwalk and get some of those police to go into the neighborhood. We got them.
Speaker 4:And so to me, it's a matter of priority. Well, you know, the good thing about it is to just see how divine is. You've got a former chief of police sitting right here.
Speaker 1:Ralph Godby is in the studio.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, I keep looking at him as I'm talking to you. I apologize, I think it's a good thing We've had these conversations with him.
Speaker 1:I've had these conversations.
Speaker 3:I've appreciated the honesty and the integrity of some of those conversations that you know, because we have to stop pretending like what we're doing is working when we have to change what we're doing. And Detroit, when Mayor Coleman Young was elected mayor back in the day I'm one of the few people in this room who was alive at that time. I don't know.
Speaker 4:No, you don't look like that. You don't look like that, All right all right, all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was 10 when he was elected, so that was a big day for me and my family. When he was elected, remember he ran on stopping was it stress? When he was elected, remember he ran on stopping was it stress, Stress, yeah, and he ran and created the many stations and police. We had the Detroit Police Commission. We had all of these innovations taking place in policing. Community policing really got a good start in Detroit. Why don't we lead the way? We act like Motown. We stopped being inventive after Motown and house music. We can do inventive stuff right now and lead the way with the right mayor. So what is your thought around when you talk about a think tank?
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:I feel, like you know, obviously I have a lot of ideas and a lot of opinions that this mayor does not listen to, and I would love to continue to talk to you about that. This mayor does not listen to. But how do you bring all of these ideas together so that we can be that creative force in the world? How do you see yourself doing that?
Speaker 4:Well, one of the things about being a part of community you have the intuitive knowledge, and you have the intuitive knowledge just based on your experience of knowing who those community people would be and pulling those A whole lot of times. When we come into our community, so many times we are misrepresented and people have made themselves self-proclaimed leaders, and those of us that are in the community know that the reality is they, that they have no credibility in our community at all. For those of us that are in the community, that's doing the work. We know who those individuals are and we know that we need to invite people to the table but also set up an algorithm and a platform where everyone gets heard so that we can take that into consideration.
Speaker 4:And that's one of the things that my administration can promise to do to make sure that any time that I'm seated at the table, that I will continue to do what I've always done for 27 years, that I will continue to make sure that the people in the city of Detroit know that they are the highest concern on any agenda. When I'm in the room, that it's not going to be changed. I don't have no motivation to move out of political expediency. I don't have a desire to do a next set or next setup. I'm getting into it because I believe that this is an amazing opportunity and a historic opportunity to put someone in a seat who can be creative, who can be courageous, who can be bold and who ain't going to bow because there are forces at work that seeking to make sure that so many in our community voices stay suppressed and oppressed.
Speaker 1:We got about seven minutes left. I want to ask you about you know the current condition that exists on the payments of neighborhoods, and you talked about partnering with community leaders, and these leaders can tell you what the current conditions are. The next mayor will be starting an administration with a DC that isn't as friendly as the last administration.
Speaker 1:A Michigan legislature that may not be as friendly as the last one. Talk to me about your legislative policy agenda, both for the state and even nationally. What kind of resources, what kind of appropriations do you see coming to the city of Detroit that you want to advocate for from the Michigan legislature and even on the federal level?
Speaker 4:You know Orlando. It's amazing to me, when we have these conversations where we have to be cautious and careful, that we're not complicit in the disparity discussions and equity discussions of our own candidates, because when there were different individuals running for the office, some of these questions we never raised because we understood. I'm not talking about you, I know you and the source, but I'm just talking about the overall conversation. What we have to make sure that we remember is that the mayor does nothing alone A lot of those relationships you have that's predated and preexistent. But that's why you have people that help facilitate the relationships that you don't have. That's why you have lobbyists, that's why you have representatives, that's why you have people who serve in these places and spaces in business, to continue to foster those relationships and build the kind of equity, those relationships and build the kind of equity Right now, whether it's Congress, whether it's Senator, whether it's some lobbyists, whether it's city council those people already call my phone. Those are phone numbers I already have. There has not been a mayor. There has not been a governor. I remember when Jennifer Granholm came to Triumph Church. I remember both times when Whitmer got in my car and drove around. All of them. Multiple services, services, the mayors Dave Bing, duggan have been to that congregation, and so those relationships wouldn't be new. Although there would be some new relationships, they're pre-existent.
Speaker 4:The other part of this that we want to make sure that we understand is that we need a fighter and a unifier in that seat. There are some things, no matter who's in office. We ain't going to agree on everything, but my faith and my DNA motivates me to find common ground when I can. But when I can't and America is not living up to the description of America, the beautiful and it started acting like America. The ugly is our responsibility to make sure that we defend the rights of people, and so the agenda will continue to be what's in place, but also making sure that we are not putting people in place or allowing people to get into these places and spaces and they're not delivering for us. You have to if you're going to take on the trust of our people and I think the mayor can assess the net.
Speaker 4:I mean, when Coleman was leader, his voice meant something. We have to have a mayor and a leader whose voice means something.
Speaker 1:Especially when you're trying to legislate at a very local level, justice that a lot of legal scholars will tell you is illegal. So time and time again I've observed at city council meetings the city council wanting to initiate a program that the corporation council is saying it's illegal by state law, with no impetus or no incentive to change the state law Right. And so, if I'm hearing you correctly, building those relationships and helping folks get elected that will represent folks in neighborhoods, and you have to, and the citizens have to think about that.
Speaker 4:Being mayor, you still have to get the votes. So if you, if you, seated a city council and you can't get the votes, even if you go to the other side, you still got to harness the votes and be able to garner the support in order to make things happen. We can't just be in a perpetual place where we're protesting and we're not being productive. Our people deserve wins and one of the things that we have a history of showing is that we know how to deliver for the people and be creative in that. And when somebody says you know how can you pastor and do that, that's how you know we can do that, because pastor has shown that we're able to do that. And it's still about meeting the needs and delivering products and services for our people.
Speaker 1:All right, with one minute left, anything you want to leave to our audience.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love this motto and mantra that I've been hearing around the city of Detroit. I didn't come up with it, I don't know who came up with it. They said listen. They said I rock with Kenlock, and so what I've been telling people, what I've been telling people, did you put that on paper yet Listen? I said listen, it's already done. And so they said I rock with Kenlock. And I said I want the citizens of Detroit to know for 27 years Kenlock been rocking with them and they need to know that, if they give me an opportunity to sit in that seat, that's exactly what I will continue to do Rock for the people in Detroit and for Detroit in a way that we haven't seen in a while.
Speaker 1:All right, it is never enough time. Pastor Solomon Kinloch, candidate for Detroit Mirror, thank you for coming on, thank you, thank y'all for having me.
Speaker 4:You told me this was the hot seat. It was you. Listen, listen, you were just asking good questions.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, I appreciate you.
Speaker 4:Outro Music.
