The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: James Solomon & Frank Gilmore Talk Jersey City Mayoral Race, Housing, Health Care, Agendas + More

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, James Solomon & Frank Gilmore Talk Jersey City Mayoral Race, Housing, Health Care, Agendas. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That was dumb. Do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast.

So we'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals. And now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of okay. Hold up. A real life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota. To find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve, and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Tick podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets.

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Charlameen the God, Lauren LaRosa, DJ Envy, Jess, and I don't know what Jess went. Wow, I know where Jess went, though. He's on his way back in. Oh, you're on the way back? Okay, we have Councilman James Solomon. He's running for mayor of Jersey City. Good morning, Counselman. Thank you for having me.

Now, they did not tell us who these brothers. I have no idea. Nobody told us anything. They didn't say, Councilman James Solomon was coming, so I am sorry, sir. I think that's actually why Envy walked out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not because he didn't know you. He didn't know how to introduce you, whatever, whatever. I don't have a problem looking like I don't know nothing.

I'm councilman Frank educational Gilmore. Okay, so Frank, Frank's councilman here in Ward-F in Jersey City. That's why you walked out? What? They gave us the information on the brother, but that's why I've walked out. I didn't know anything. They told us counseling and followed. Envy was ready to get prepared.

Yeah, no, no, they were giving us an information on. I said, give them a second. Oh, well, we're here now. We already started. Yes. Welcome. How you're doing? Wonderful.

How are you? I'm doing well. So, Councilman James Solomon, so you're running for mayor of Jersey City. That's right. Why? Great question. So Jersey City has gotten being one of the most unaffordable cities in the entire country. Rents up 50% in five years.

Because it's right next to the bridge. That's right. The Holland Tunnel. Property taxed up 50% in five years. And we haven't had a leader who's been focused on actually making the city affordable, putting money in people's pockets, making sure the rent doesn't go through the roof. And so I'm running to deliver an affordable Jersey City. Are you from Jersey City?

I grew up in Milburn, and I moved to Jersey City 15 years ago. Okay. Yeah. So you're familiar with Jersey City, the traffic. So how do you stop the traffic out in Jersey City? That's one of the first thing. Traffic is always nuts in Jersey City. Tell people to move.

No, we're not doing that. And two is the expenses. And how are you going to get the cost of living down so much where people can actually live there? Yeah. So first thing on that one is we've got to get tougher on development, right? Jersey City developers have taken a lot, and it's time for them to start giving back to us.

So right now we basically had luxury-only development. So no affordable in Jersey City, tens of thousands of units. So I'm the only can I run for mayor as long as the council, and we don't take money from developers in our campaign, gives us some real independence. So we're going to demand 20% affordable in all new projects with real rent. So rents $1,000 a month, rents $1,500 a month. Because folks say affordable, but what does that actually mean?

So we want to be specific. Rents $1,000 a month, rents $1,500 a month. And then on transportation, I think a big thing is just trying to make our mass transit work better. So I say for your New York viewers, you know, path is actually worse than MTA. It's worse than the subway. We had a train land on fire a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago. So we're going to push to get our path service running much more effectively, particularly on the weekends,

improve our light rail. Jersey City's got a great light rail, and then improve the buses. We think we can push and do all those things. I want to ask you, but why is, tell us the importance of the city council, people who don't know. So the points of the city council is really the check and balance mechanism for the executive branch. So if you're looking at the president and then you have the House of Representatives, you have Congress, they're supposed to be that check and balance mechanism. mechanism from the executive branch.

And I will make the argument that the council races are more important than the actual mayoral races because the mayor may want to introduce something, but ultimately the council was tasked with either approving or voting that initiative down. So the city council level is so important, especially to everyday residents. And if I just that one thing, so Frank and I are the only two members currently on the council that got our seats independent. You know, New Jersey, Jersey City got a really strong. political machine, really powerful forces, and each of us got to our seats by starting on the

grassroots, knocking on doors, being connected to the people. And that's partly why we've always been aligned politically. And you need independent voices on the council, because if you don't have them, you just get the rubber stamp over and over again. Whatever the machine wants, whatever the money wants, that's what they get. And so you really need to have independent voices on your city council pushing the city forward. One thing I was, Jersey City is also known for as bad flooding, right? Had to call Washington Jersey City maybe about 15 years ago, right? And what street? don't even remember the street Main Street coming up

as soon as you come out the Holland Tunnel right on the right hand side and that's right and then it closed it you know why because it flooded it flooded right so it flooded so bad that for like two weeks at a time nobody could actually get to my car wash

because there was so much water there and then when they got a car wash they'd have to drive through the water which made the car back dirty so it didn't make any sense so why is Jersey City always flooded and what can be done to make sure that that doesn't happen as much

yeah it's a great question so if you look at the like the old maps Like where your car wash was, like it used to be water. I mean, the Hudson River used to be there, and then they filled it in over the years. And so what we can do is a couple different things. One is, like, you're kind of getting like wonky, but like you kind of want to treat your city like a sponge. You want more trees because they suck up the water. You want more poor surfaces, your pavement to be able to soak up the water.

And then you get more pumps to basically push the water out. So it's just like investments, and it's thinking for the future because it's not getting better, right? Climate change is getting worse, right? We had Hurricane I mean, I was in people's basements seeing the flooding devastation. I mean, people's livelihoods. When people live in the city, their whole lives, all their stuff gone. And so we have to be committed to basically making sure that Jersey City has the best stormwater resiliency programs. Expand your sores, create that sort of porous sponge-like services wherever you can, and then you help with a flooding.

And you're a cancer survivor. I am, yes. How does your own medical history drive your agenda for healthcare? I mean, it's the core, I think, of who I am and why I got into public service. I mean, so just as to the quick story, right? So I was 30, had gotten married. in a month after the wedding, got the diagnosis. So you just think, you know, you're 30.

You think you're invincible. The life's in front of you, and all of a sudden you have cancer. And it made me think deeply about what it is that I wanted in life. And for me, it was just two things. It was family and public service. So I was like, if I get better, if I get that second chance, that's what I want. And I got lucky, right? Treatment worked.

Six months later, I was in remission. So actually, this is a 10-year anniversary of the diagnosis. And so nine years back in health. And so I was like, you know, family public service. So my wife and I have three beautiful daughter. Camille, Corinna Noelle, they're 7, 5, and 3. And then it was give back to Jersey City. Because Jersey City had my back during my toughest time,

so it's like, I have to have their back. And I got to do it the right way. And so that's what led me to run for office. And in counsel, I know that I have to pay it forward. I know that I got to make sure that people have access to health care. So as a city, we've expanded our health care options. We've opened up clinics. We're making sure more people can get health care.

And at the national level, you know, it made me a supporter of universal health care. It made me say, look, like, when you're going through that tough treatment, you need to be focused on yourself and your family. Do that have to be worried about insurance and bills on top of that to add that extra stress that your illness might bring bankruptcy to your family? Like that is awful to force somebody through. So for me, it made me a supporter of universal health care.

And I think, look, other countries, they don't have medical bankruptcies, but we do. And so that's what led me to decide that that was the right approach for us. So on the national level, I always support candidates that are pushing for universal health care. During the times right now, though, where, like, Medicaid and Medicare, like, there's so much conversation about things being cut. And something will happen. We don't know everything, right, but something will. How do you, you know, personally as a cancer survivor, deal with the residents that you're

fighting for when you have to possibly prepare to tell them, I might not be able to help you. As a politician, how do you maneuver that? I mean, these are the most brutal conversations because, like, you get into politics because you want to help people, but you also can't lie to them. And, you know, on health care, you know, we know the Medicaid cuts are coming. I mean, part of what I kind of hated about what Trump did was he cut. was he cut it, but he put it after the election, right? So you're going to feel those cuts in 2027, not this year,

so he can get through the election before people feel it. But I just tell people that I fight, right? I think that's the thing is you can't promise things you can't deliver, but you can promise that you're going to fight. And so when these elections come in 22, I'm going to fight for candidates that want health care and get them into office. You know, I've been living in Jersey for about,

I would say 20 plus years, 25 years, something like that. And our station was by Canal Street, so we're very familiar with going through Jersey City. How come nothing ever changes, right? There's been so many different mayors in the last 20 years that I've been living in in Jersey City, right? It's still the same. It's still traffic is crazy.

It's still floods all the time. It's still expensive. It's still very, very costly, even everything. But it seems like nothing ever changes. So what will be different with you? I think we're connected to the people. We start there. Neither of us got to where we got

because the machine put us there. And you've seen that over the years, right? The machine picks their person, and then you don't serve the people, you serve the bosses. And I think what we're going to be able to do is actually get into office and fight for folks. So, again, not taking that developer money, that's huge. Jersey City has had so much growth in development, which isn't a bad thing, but it hasn't been for the whole community. So making sure we actually get affordable units in, getting those $1,000 a month rents in those large new luxury towers, that's doable. It's a thing we can deliver.

And I think people will see that. you know, if you're actually a mayor whose job it is, whose dream it is this to be mayor. Too often people use it as a step in stone for the next thing, and I respect politicians with ambition. Obviously, wouldn't be here if I didn't have some. But I do think mayor is the dream job. That you actually get to serve your community every day,

go home at night and put your kids to bed. Like, I couldn't imagine a better job. And I think people will see that they have a mayor who's actually, you know, gives a shit about them. What do you think, Councilman Gilmore? I think also when you're talking about the municipal government and you're talking about the budget and you're talking about ways to find money,

we looked and we've seen that there were several individuals not paying the payroll tax, right? And these institutions historically get away from, get away with not paying because of their ties to elected leadership. You know, they give these guys hundreds of thousands of dollars and they campaigns to turn their back when they see unethical things taking place. So when you have a government that's grounded

and working for the people, you can ensure that the people that's making the most money is paying their fair share. What that do with, it released the burdens on everyday homeowners that own one and two family homes, right? Their taxes are not so high because we're collecting the share that we're supposed to be collecting. With the amount of development that transpired in Jersey City within the last seven and ten years, there's no way you can have more development and the cost of living going up.

You have more rateables. You have more money coming in. Something isn't right here. Right? And there's a system that say, you know, put the onus on them and, you know, they'll do what's right. Yeah. Right. You need a government that's going to be transparent and that's going to hold those developers accountable.

You know, I get the, I get the kickback. Oh, he's anti-development. No, I'm not. I'm just pro-responsible development. Right? We want to make sure the development that's taking place, one, benefits the community. And two, the developer. are paying their fair share.

I call it, well, Killamike always calls it compassionate capitalism. Yeah, that's what I agree. Yeah, that's what I agree should be. Compassionate capitalism. Like, I look at somebody like Zonra-Mondani's campaign, right? And all he's talking about is people having more money in their pocket and people being safe.

I don't know why politicians complicate any of this. That's all any American wants. Well, when people giving you money, you got to do your job. You know? So your job is the complicated things. No, what I'm saying is when, when, you have people who have invested interests in you and they're giving you these monies and they're taking care of your family members and you know you're giving out these contracts to all these

people who super PAC is supporting you and that's the messiness in politics right so you kind of lose yourself they offer me to give me X amount of money to run on a certain slate and I was like well I can't be councilman get one of the people like the councilmen that represent the interests of the people right that's what makes me you know That's the only way I can win the race with 50,000 going against 2.5 million, right? It's because the people like representation, one that understand the problems, one that look like them, and two, that come from where they come from, right? That's what make me unique.

So it's a disservice to all of the people who supported me for me to say, hey, now I'm in a position to do what I've fought against my whole career. I agree. I want to talk about, I'm sorry. One other thing, crime, because you mentioned crime with, but I'm not. bit, Manani. You know, they're saying that homicides is down, which is a great thing. But everything else is up. When they're talking stolen vehicles is up, assaults is up, thefts is up, criminal mischief is up. How do we cut back on some of the crime that's happening in

Jersey City? Because a lot of people, where Jersey City was a place where a lot of people would go to restaurants. They would go to the nightlife was big at one time. But it's slowed down a lot, which is hurting businesses because crime is up. So how do you combat that? Yeah, it's a good question. So I think it's like you're doing all the above approach. So first is we do need some more officers we've lost 150 over the last five years so get some more officers get them on the street our current police chief keeps them literally in these fixed posts we're not allowed to move so if their crime that happens a block away you say hey officers is a crime they'll literally tell you i can't move call it in a block away that's nuts so we're going to change that approach

actually get folks off on the beaten movement then you've got to invest in the community right ultimately part of the reason that those petty crimes have gone up is we're not offering opportunities for young people in jesus city so we're going to change that we're going to have a plan for a thousand summer jobs, get folks off the street, give them, use opportunities income to, to be able to find what gives them validation, find what gives them hope. And then we've got a plan to basically make sure we have violence interruptors everywhere in the city. Now, they're saying that a lot of officers are leaving because they feel like the city is not behind them, meaning people are getting arrested and they're re-arresting the same people over and over and over again.

They're getting non-cash bails, and they're coming out and doing these same crimes. And a lot of officers are saying that, you know, why I risk my life in Jersey City when I can go down South where they feel like they respect the law a lot better. Where Southwick, what, down South Jersey or, you know, I'm talking about Florida. Oh, Florida. I'm talking in Houston. I'm talking in places like that where they feel like. Well, I mean, I'm on a record.

I'm a huge fan of cashless bells. Being in that situation and seeing several individuals sitting in a county jail for two and three years for petty crimes because they don't have the financial. stability to get out but there is there needs to be a conversation for repeat offenders I'm over at one point when it like this first no cash bell came into play um and we've seen a lot of people who was the rest of firearms being able to come home and subsequently some of those individuals end up dead or killing other people um so I think that you know while there's some benefits there's some setbacks that we need to be able to tweak out and ultimately I think

the state have done a better job with that keeping violent offenders in there longer until they either, I guess, sentence or a sonnator or however that go. But when you're talking about crime, right, in order to really address crime, you have to first understand crime, right? So we've done a fairly decent job as it relates to homicides and violence crimes being down across the city. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went

wild. Not twice. Stunned. But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream stunts. starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control.

Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08?

is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now,

because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio, app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia.

How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult.

Hold up, Sophia. A real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling, and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP.

She did! And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday.

A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar pay? out. There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't?

CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you your podcasts because we have organizations like us in partnership cmo credible messengers you know a bunch of groups that i work with we do what we call high level intervention with individuals who may participate in our gang violence and things like that um so it's about funding those institutions they're doing this stuff with no money with no money on a shoe screen budget so we invest in them they can do more now when you're talking about petty crime what are some of the

motivations of individuals commit petty crime a lot of these crimes are people breaking in cars still in the laptops because it's visible taking change and things like that these are people with drug addiction these are people that have problems right you treat the you treat the problem and not the symptom right you get these people in rehabs you have opportunities for them to rehabilitate excuse me rehabilitate themselves right and that's how you have a holistic approach to crime. Do you think the gentrification in Jersey City will be beneficial or will be too many residents being displayed?

Well, gentrification is already there, right? So I always tell people. Times a million in Jersey City. Yeah, man. I always tell people, listen, at the end of the day, I already know, I'm a black man in America, right? I'm of the opinion, right? If gentrification is here, you have to be a part of the system. It's coming.

In fact, it's already here, right? I'm encouraging people, and this is outside of politics, right? Buy up, whatever you can buy up. Get together with two or three people. Buy it up. Buy your grandmother house. Get your family house. Don't sell the house, right?

Because gentrification is here, and to really have stake in a game, you have to own property. You have to have ownership. I don't care who's in charge. You have to have ownership. So you have to be proactive, man. And it's already here, and you have to become a willing participant inside of this cycle, right? And I'll tell people all the time, right?

Crime is going to, is going to move because that's the good thing about gentrification, right? It eradicates a certain element of a community, right? Because there's an influx of not just black or white, it's just individuals on a high am on the socioeconomic ladder, right? People that make more money. So with that group of people, it's certain stuff that's just not going to be around, right? So the gentrification is there. There's also an opportunity for people to benefit from it, right?

I ain't sitting around complaining about, oh, this person is buying up this. No, participate. Get with a brother or sister. I got two friends. They're living. They're paying $3,000 on each floor in the house. Get a mortgage. Right?

Don't get in the business of complaining. Like, let's do something about it. What programs are y'all? Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. Most of the time there's no, no, no, no. Because they can't put down money. There's no money to put down. Sometimes people don't know about the process.

I was going to ask you. But, okay, so politicians that come here are just in general when I talk to them, they'll name all these programs and all these resources. But when you just talk to the regular person who grandmom is 10 years back taxes, you don't even have the energy to think about that. And you don't know, you don't know who to call to find out, right? What are you doing to bridge that gap of, hey, I'm giving you the resource because I want to make sure y'all can be in an ownership conversation.

This is what Frank is, great at, right? So, you know, he calls himself Frank educational Gilmore, but there's a reason for that, right? You know, Frank is in the community every day. He literally goes door to door to let people know. He held a couple of specific meetings about, hey, how do you benefit from homeownership? How do you access the resources that are there? And the community trust Frank. And so Frank is out there every day doing that. But I think it's back to something you were talking about with Mom Dani. It's just understanding that, like, part of our job is money in people's pockets, right? Part of the reason, you know, people didn't care about things Mom Dani tweeted six years ago

was because he showed that he was actually the one guy who was willing to fight some powerful interests to get more money in people's pockets, right? Freeze rent, get more affordable homes built, and that's what we're doing. And that's what I think for this race is about. It's like, look, we got people who should be able to buy their homes,

who should be able to stay in Jersey City, but they don't know about it. And we're going to actually be focused on getting them money because we don't have other people telling us what to do. We don't have bosses giving us a order. We don't have developers demanding that we prioritize them over the homeowners. But we're going to be out there every day

knocking on doors, hosting community meetings, and getting people education so they can actually benefit from changes that are happening in the community. And also, like, something my office did, right? We host these first-time home-bias seminar. We just have one Saturday, right? And we have a newsletter that go out. I'm very involved in the community. And my whole thing is I'm telling people like, this is what's available. My whole platform is about educating people. It's really the main reason I'm into politics. I'm not really, I don't like politics, to be completely honest, right? But I'm in it because I want to help people out, right? And I'm, and I'm encouraging them. It's like, it seems hard because in black and brown communities, like, we don't have these

conversations about homeownership as much as we should, right? So I'm encouraging them. I remember, I'm a recipient of a first time home buyer's house. It took me a year to close on that house. The people I was working with, they said, Mr. Gilmore, you have encountered every single setback that you can account and purchase in a house, right? So I use that to fuel me to help the next person, to help the next family. I'm teaching them outside of my job that if your house have a lien on it, what you can do to get this lien off, how you can leverage the equity in your house. Because us, we're looking at the house.

I'm looking at the value in the land, right? So it's about educating. That's the most important thing that I think I really was successful and accomplished in this first term is educating the people. And I think that's the most important thing is education. Now, you shot up in the polls, right? A year ago, you were down low and you shot back up where it's almost neck and neck. Why do you think that is?

Yeah, well, it gets back to money in pockets, right, being directly focused on affordability each and every day. But then also, it's the dynamic of the race. And it's not too different than which you guys seen in New York. I know you guys are all Jersey residents, but what folks in New York have seen, right? My main opponent is a disgraced former governor, not Andrew Cuomo, Jim McGreevy, who resigned in scandal 20 years ago, and he started with everybody, right? The governor endorsed him, all the bosses endorsed him. He raised $5 million, which is like three times as much as anybody's ever raised in Jersey City before.

And so, you know, he starts at the lead. But just like Cuomo came back down to Earth, it's the same thing with McGreevy, because when you knock on someone's door, they don't care about any of that. The only thing they're asking about is, how can I make your life better? That's it. And I can show, look, on the City Council, We ban the use of illegal algorithms to ban, to set rents high. We repealed the fees they put on our free public pools.

We've been about doing work for people in the community. And so when you get to tell that story to people, they're like, hey, I might not have known about you six months ago. But I want you to be the mayor because you seem like you're actually going to try to make my life better. The guy who reports to Charles Kushner, he's not going to make my life better. Counselman Gilmore, why are you supporting counsel in asylum? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, I've supported Councilman Salomon because he's been like one of my, biggest allies on the council and I've witnessed how he worked firsthand. We're the only two

independent council people and just to give you guys of a reality on how that looks. That means we only have two votes. You need five votes to get anything passed. So whenever the administration come in with something that's like the regular person, we're looking like this is dumb. Why is they voting and they get passed is because the administration have these these council people that's a part of the administration and they just vote for whatever the administration want. I've witnessed Councilman Salomon work with the odds against

72 and to get meaningful legislation passed. I've witnessed him argue with legal and say, listen, I didn't ask you if we can do it or we can't do it. I'm saying find a way in which we can do it because they're notorious for saying oh, we can't do this, we can't do that, right? Whenever it's me or Councilman Salomon coming to them. But everybody else, they go and they try to make a way.

So for me, when I'm looking at it, I'm looking at one, who is really genuine about doing the job, who have the experience, who can have the financial capacity to get to the finishing line, and who I would be able to work with best to get the most resources for my war. Because ultimately, I want to make sure my residents and Ward F are taken care of. And Councilman Salomon have proven to be that individual. Fun fact, everybody running for mayor wanted me before they even made any of that. We can get Gilmore. We're in a good position, right? So they used to say I was like the hot, my friend said, you're the hot chicken high school. Everybody wants you. And I, you know, I waited patiently and I looked at who was, because for me, like, who you're connected to is really important. You know, my mentor says be mindful of the company you keep. Right. So, and I see Councilman Salomon have done a great job by surrounding himself around people. You know, my mentor. I say be mindful of the company you keep. Right. Right. So, and I see councilman Salomon have done a great job by surrounding himself around people. who's really into doing the business of the municipal government. For me, I said, you know, I have to get behind that, right? You know, like I said, people who have offered me very lucrative things.

And some people are looking at me, he's like, oh, what is wrong with this guy? He don't understand politics. And I'm like, no, I don't understand politics the way you understand it. All right. Right. So that's why I'm supporting Councilman and Solomon. And that's why he's going to be our next mayor. Oh, all right.

Well, and wrap him. Closing this out, what do you want to say to your residents in Jersey City? Well, it was the question the interview you asked, which was like, things haven't changed. So I get the cynicism. I get why people are frustrated. But I do think we can have hope. We can have genuine public servants that each and every day get up and think their job is to serve other people and make their lives better. So I ask for everyone's vote if you live in Jersey City because genuinely we can make the city more affordable.

We can end the luxury-only housing and get housing that actually people can afford. We have a plan to get rent to own for teachers, firefighters, nurses, you know, cops, make sure that they're able to stay in the city that they serve. We're going to cap rent increases and we're going to stabilize property taxes, which have gone up 50% in five years. So if you want leadership that's independent, that puts the people first and the only boss is the residents of Jersey City, then we're asking for your vote. Last question.

I thought that was last one. Keep going. With so many influences, artists, et cetera, et cetera, in Jersey City, have you guys, have you guys ever said you know what let me work with them um to make sure that we can protect our own community because he might somebody might be strong here i seen what ross baraka did a long long time ago what this guy might be strong in this war this guy might be strong in this war and if we work together we can stop some of the crimes have you guys yeah i mean so that's that's the approach you know ross uh shout out to my brother uh riz baraka that's that's my big brother

that's my mentor um and that's something we've done like on a on a micro level we haven't really got to the place where we need to get to as it relates to that but to your point that is so important is these are the people that's on the ground that actually know the people and they are related to the people so you have to one fund that initiative and two be serious about it right don't fund it one year or halfway and then the next year not funded right i'm looking at nor because norc in jersey city is similar in a lot of things and i'm looking across the bridge And I'm saying, wow, they're doing a great, a lot of great things, like the 24 hours apiece. Like, that is beautiful.

That is beautiful. Now people feel like they're a part, like we belong, right? So they're more vested. It's kind of like the homeowner versus the renter, right? Homeowners take more care of the property because they understand how it affects their property value, right? And you just make sure everyone's a part of the conversation, everyone is benefiting. And I think ultimately that's the ideal match is a match made heaven when we do. You know, Councilman Salomon, they just dropped a hit piece on you in, uh...

Oh, yeah. In Georgia City Times, they said you come from a privileged background. I don't, you know, I, it's... I saw them do that on Mondami, Mondani, and I'm like, I don't see why that matters. If a person you can about public service, like, I don't... You're going to penalize me from my parents making the right decision. That's kind of how life should work. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Your parents should put you in the best position to succeed. And you, and you asked, Charlie about, like, the cancer diagnosis. Like, that, you know, it was the... this thing that, like, just all the scales fell away. No, that's what matters is, are you dedicating your life to making other people's lives better? And do you fight for what's right? And when I talk, we're knocking someone's door,

the question is, how are you going to lower my rent? How are you going to make sure my kids' public school is better? How are you going to make sure I can cross the street safely and not get run over? How are you going to stop the flooding? That's those are the questions they ask. And I think we're going to win because we don't get distracted by all the, you know, the BS.

We just talk about how we're going to make your life better. Absolutely. Absolutely. Councilman Solomon, good luck. I appreciate it. When can they go out there and vote? So early voting is open now, so you can vote 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 12 sites across Jersey City.

And then election day is November 4th. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day in New Jersey. Get out there and vote. And we appreciate you, brother, so joining us for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you for having us. The breakfast club. Good morning.

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