[Music] hello good afternoon Tyro good afternoon Sarah my name is Sarah and I work with the living archives project where we are collecting stories of how covid-19 impacted various communities in Charlotte meinberg County Today is December 19th 2022 and this week there were 152 reported cases of covid-19 in Charlotte County it shows a slight increase of 177% over the last two weeks since we are both virtual each of us is comfortable not wearing a mask Tai would you introduce yourself thank you S
arah um my name is Ty Joba I am the city manager for the city of Greensboro um I've been here now for about 11 months or prior to me coming here I was planning director and assistant city manager for the city of shot I am an African-American male and um I love North Carolina I love it Ty how long have you been in North Carolina I've been in North Carolina since 2015 came from Georgia from Georgia okay and man how you were a assistant City Manager for Charlotte yes for how long I was assistant ci
ty manager and planning director from 2018 until January of 2022 wow that's amazing uh three years Yes W almost four almost four years yeah and do you are you you have a family in North Carolina yes I have my family here and um they love it uh we have kids who go to University of North Carolina in Charlotte University of North Carolina in Greensboro and High Point University and so yeah that's amazing yeah that's amazing well I'm so excited thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing
your story with us um I would love to just start off and ask for you to describe your experience over the last two years with the covid-19 pandemic you know when he first hit us uh we all thought he was going to be shut Le um we started talking about coming back to work in 3 months coming back to work in 6 months at that time longterm thinking for us was six months as plan for how we're going to come back to the office but gradually and at the same time quickly realizing that this may not actual
ly turn out the way we thought it might be this might actually be an um an event that could leave a permanent mark on the way we do everything and so we had to quickly make a peek I think personally for me um it wasn't so difficult living in a virtual world because I've been a consultant prior to joining the city and as a consultant you're going to use Skype which was what we used in those days to communicate with clients or conferencing um so making that transition from inperson to Virtual plat
form wasn't that much of a big deal as an IND but what was different though however was this having to connect with residents not just one video conferencing with one or two people but now you're talking about community members who have no access to digital platform had no way to connect with you and and I felt I felt that prior to covid people mistrusted government now with covid people even mistrusted us was even more because if behind that screen what exactly are they talking about what exact
ly are they doing and I also felt to an extent invisible because you had to wear your mask and people could see your eyes but they really especially if you were someone who wasn't able to visualize people talking um it made it very difficult for a disabled members of the community to even know what you were saying because you were hiding behind this mask so I felt that there was a disconnect between us and the community and because a lot of what we did as a planner and as also a city Administrat
ion especially myself was connecting with Community I felt very disconnected I thought you could only have access to people who could talk to you by Zoom or by project team or by whatever other platform was there at that time what about the other members of the community especially the black and brown community and those who live on the lower level of the social income who could not afford to get on those so there was a sense of holess in me so to speak um and I I thought there should be a way t
o re-engage the community um I kind of was thinking about that on a day-to-day basis especially as than God was 3 months 6 months 12 months and bu buildings were still vacant streets were empty and you just got to find ways by which you could engage and then to had to that was George Floyd um as well so it kind of compounded the situation and those who had been keeping a wave because of the impact of covid came out because of the desire to achieve social justice and so you now saw these two thin
gs almost like colliding should we stay behind the screen or there's only so much activism you could do behind the screen and and so it was important to find a platform by which people could get out and do it safely while they continue to protest so I had my wife and my children got out on the streets had a you know posters you know got into the park took a match took a knee and did everything that we could do to make sure that we did not allow covid-19 to prevent us from participating in uh the
message around social justice especially how black and brown people and minorities were being treated uh in our country so in in a nutshell it was an unusual and unreal time that we are still now two years later um we're still reing from the effects of it we have not totally recovered and I'm not sure we were fully recover so I keep saying we are recovering I don't believe there's anything like postco 19 I think we're still um recovering but we are also developing innovative ways by which we ca
n do things better and live in the reality we have found ourselves very very very good um what do you think are some ways that the the community got involved in that what are some ways that they able to I feel that there were members of the community who could communicate to us sending us emails even making phone calls and um I I think I'm not sure that so I joined the city of Charlotte in 2018 and covid-19 really hit us in early 20120 um as a city I will say that the number of andwritten letter
s that I got between 2018 and 2020 were maybe on one hand I could count them but the number of handwritten letters that I got once Co hit within a span of six months were a lot because there were members of the community who still wanted to be able to convey a lot of their thoughts and frustrations and concerns and maybe in some instances compliments about some of the work we were doing and they had no access to the internet or they were not even sure that I was at work enough to be able to even
read their emails um so they resed to writing letters um you know you have to decipher the writings be able to see what um some of our members of the community was saying we had to come up with some ideas for example we were working on the comprehensive plan um and at that time we were releasing the first draft of the Charlotte future comprehensive plan then we knew the community wanted to engage so what we did was to do a drive-in movie theater styled engagement where we actually went in the c
ommunity and had a translation on a particular radio station that people could sit in their vehicles and still be able to hear the message whether it was in English or otherwise creative I think we had over people participated so one thing that was very obvious to me was preco or during covid the community wanted to continue to participate in governance uh and they just had to look for creative ways to do it whether it was going back to oldfashioned letter writing or pretty much St calling your
landline um or just texting or emailing or day Runing to you um in the store on the public they come to you and talk so community members were reallying with impact of the covid-19 and the unknown and so it was good in a way that we were still able to find find means of connecting with them we created virtual classrooms for those who had access to uh the internet where we could still communicate with people and especially your employees um who are feeling very disconnected and our residents and
small business owners uh and so projects continued uh you know we didn't expect to stop uh people experience maybe slow down a little bit during the pandemic but you knew that slowing down will also mean that if you know cost will only increase with time if you slow down and so how do you balance the expectations with the demands and and balancing it with reality so but but one thing that was obvious to me was the community did not relent on their desire to continue to participate in governance
show such a uniqueness and beautiful Community here yes very involved and they can even in the midst of the chaos they can be resilient creative yeah so you mentioned that during this time was also the go for and I protest and we talked about having an giv members a platform what did that look like for me personally um I can't call myself an activist as much when I was a university student I was uh an activist um I was a student representative uh not only for my department but for my faculty the
n back in Nigeria uh but I constantly during the George Floyd movement I imagin myself that I was George Floyd um you know what would my family go through seeing what I went through or what I was going through how will my kids you know um see themselves uh if they want situ sitation and I realize that an African-American male who has you know been blessed with a position uh being an assistant city manager or planning director you have to ask yourself as an administrator what should your role be
in working with the community to help emphasize the voices that were normally not at the table uh when policies made and when decisions have been made so I think that at that point in time the activist part of me came out and I started looking for ways by which I could participate in what was going on so the black lives matter mural on Trade Street uh on pre Street actually in Charlotte was the outcome of that because I just got on Twitter and I asked the question what if we R5 a r t i FY just w
ord I made up what if we had defy the intersection between try and trade with black lives matter I just thought that would create a hub for people to gather we were having protests after protests now maybe we need to create a secret ground where residents law enforcement government folks like myself who gather together and just heal um so it was just a Twitter I didn't expect that it will lead to what it finally became it was just a tweet um and so I'm not an artist and I'm not an activist eithe
r but I wanted to be part of that and create an opportunity for people to express their voice so the artist um and the creative Community I should call it in Charlotte just no I think I lost you hello I lost you you're back that's okay so you cut off by saying the artist and then that's all I heard oh yeah I was going to say the art community uh the creative community in Charlotte Rose up to the occasion okay said where and when how do we do this work I was thinking more of plac making what how
create a colorful place on Brian Street and so in our place making budget we had some money and we decided that we were going to support some of the artists we wanted to do something the creative Community was suffering during covid-19 and so this was one way of meaning and employing them while at the same time creating a voice for the voiceless So within in a space of hours the black lives matter miror was created it was organic it wasn't planned we did not sit down to meet with anyone to figur
e out how this was going to be done all I did was to make a clarium call and people responded to it and I was shocked by the response and how this old thing came forward um I went to the side a number of times some people getting married some people taking graduation pictures uh some people come with their family I saw a gentleman who said he was in his 70s and he never I'm sorry he said I've lived in this community all my life I never expected to see this on Main Street on Tri and U I'll never
forget I don't know him from anywhere he did not even know I was involved in any way shape or form we were just next to each other on Trion Street when he said that and he was wiping his eyes and I thought wow wow um you know if you had to make a statement of how people who had lost hope could all of a sudden find their hope kindled or people who felt that they had no voice they'd be marginalized and this was a way by which we will um engage and I I always said at that time that the message was
on the street it was really bringing people who had not been used to being on Main Street bring them to Main Street because when you think about Triumph that's where we have our biggest bank buildings that's the corporate nerve of Charlotte to think about young African-American kids riding their bicycle on this mural coming there to eat just coming to sit down and hang out they would never have been there without this m to even see what it was like so I thought that that was in a small way a con
tribution to um how you bring people up during the pandemic again that Confluence intersection between the pandemic and and and and George Floyd's death resulted in this and me brought people out one of my favorite pictures was really seeing people nailing down with a their feet raised one of our police officers talking to one of the artists and they would just engage in a really wonderful conversation that had nothing to do with you know violence or anything of that sort was just really nice I
thought it was a healing ground it was a secret spot um so I could go on and on and on about you know how we we we ended up blocking the street you know for like six months um you know it was wasn't a perfect process but the message went through that it wasn't just a symbol but it was substantive enough to let people who had been marginalized know that they also matter wow I'm just getting chilled by you talking about that you know to get emotional every time I think about it yeah and he said so
mething so beautiful giving a voice for the voice and just making people feel and value yes that is so beautiful yeah and that's the thing because each letter um with the exception of one each letter was painted by one by an artist and there was one letter that was a combination of two artists at $500 a piece even though that didn't seem like much um through our placemaking grant we provided the paint and um we were able to issue this um support to uh to our community artists I believe that out
of that a number of those those artists ended up going to do bigger and better things um you know because they were known they had their signatures and people came they interviewed them I like to think that that was the launch pad uh for a number of our community artists people don't often realize the impact that bad economy bad um Health situation whatever it may be the artist Community sometimes is often the most directly impacted first um because even in a good economy artists struggle I know
because my daughter went to school to study Earth so I have an artist and so even in the best of economy artists struggle and so it was really a small way of really helping our creative community uh to step forward and get engaged uh in the process and hopefully you know it resulted in something that um they can be proud of um you know for the rest of their of their lives yeah it's beautiful so once they had to take get the street back up and running what happened so the street got back up open
right and um the mirror was um was there for like six months we had to protect it because obviously there were people who did not like the message and I think that may be a couple of days or so after it was installed somebody drove on it um just to kind of damage it so redone and then we block this tree uh the goal was to create a pedestrian only uh environment Le um you know where restaurants could actually pull out their tables and chairs for people to come and sit out on the streets why peop
le are also having wonderful time in this short block um and so we were only able to do it for six months um and once the street became open obviously people drove on it and the pain were off but again that's the symbolic part of it symbols come to an end um no but the substantive part of it which is the message that it conveyed about the fact that you should attach values to Black lives um you know it lives up uh in the lives of people who came there to take pictures which they will memorialize
for the rest of their lives I I mean the whole story followed me here to greensport um where I came as a city manager and there were people who met me who never met me before in their lives and they said of course heard about you because of the black lives mam um in sh because Greensboro also had installed its own mural a couple of murals actually uh in its downtown at that particular point in time what made this particular miror very interesting was you I don't know how many people notied this
but the NBA Allstar game that was going to be in Charlotte actually um took a shot of this mural and it was part of the image they displayed and announcing the NBA allar game in Charlotte so again while the symbol might have faded with time the message um continues to live in the hearts and minds of people uh but you also say something to me that when you as a government official especially if you're an African-American like myself when you have kind of got to a point in your career you use you
r position as a position of influence uh in a right way to help those who have been marginalized really feel that that they have been hard um you know Equity is not just a word to me it's actually a something that I want to live by you know the Creed of equity that you know you give people what they need you don't give everybody the same thing you meet people where they are you're fair and you're just and so for me that was very important and I also believe that government has a responsibility a
nd a role in making sure that those who have been disenfranchised those who have been marginalized can be brought into the main stream of our conversations around policies are brought back into the conversations around values brought back into the conversations around how do you want your city your streets to be shaped how do you want your Urban spaces to be designed uh you know you design streets and the environment based on people who use not based on you who designed that really was to me an
opportunity to get a lot of people more involved while there are people who disagreed absolutely yes there a lot of people who still you know are mad that that whole thing took place um because it was not something they expected um to happen but by and large the majority I felt that it was something that was needed at that point in time and hopefully as we grow into our future we raise a generation of leaders who will not be afraid to step forward and do the right thing when the moment calls for
it with that truth Tylo I love that oh man if you could sum up the message I know you you said some really amazing B nuggets through your few minutes but if you could sum up what you want the message to be what would you say I would say the message has to be around the influence the power of influence that we all possess that we sometimes don't know uh until somebody steps forward and you know be the person that allows us the confidence to really Express that influence each one of those artist
had an influence I've never met with a lot of them as a matter of fact I don't think I ever met with any of them prior to that but they were all influential in the community so to speak but the influence without a voice is you know is frustrating and so I felt that you know when I think about it I thought they were able to influence a lot of us through one letter a piece because each letter had a message in it uh um and I also felt that at the same time the community by embracing it also wanted
to send a message that yes while George Floyd might have you know been killed um by um a law enforcement officer who obviously doesn't does not represent everyone in law enforcement that the message leaves on in terms of black lives do matter as a matter of fact every minority life matters and we got to make sure that the influence that resides in in the minority Community is brought alive whether it is in affordable housing provision because when you think about it housing affordability homeles
sness and the challenge with Transportation the usage with public transit when you look at the people who struggle the most with these challenges they're usually in the minority community and so how do we make sure that we address those things because because when you do um you actually expand your influence beyond that Community to everyone else because if you can meet the needs of the most vulnerable whether it's the disabled whether it's the uneducated if you can't really take care of the vul
nerable in your community you will be able to me the rest of the means of the community that's kind of how I see it if I have to summarize that message is really the power of influence and understanding that if someone has a voice and they are willing to step forward people will be able to express their influence through that one voice W and the way that you influence Charlotte through the just support and creation and kind of just uh the spark the light bul for the mural is amazing so thank you
thank you for influencing the city and for leaving such an incredible Legacy just from those six months of show this beautiful me appreciate that I I think that um when we think about it over and over we have to consider the fact that you know the message itself on the street might have faded but we have to make sure that the message of equity stays in our hearts it stays in our minds so that PO policies related to business recruitment business retention policies related to business expansion p
olicies relating to affecting housing or whatever the climate change whatever those policies may be Equity has to be at the core of every policy of every city of every town of every village because until we do that and we acknowledge it um we're not working the talk I 100% support that yeah um how would you say that the last few years has shaped you as a person it has um in many ways um I would say that I did not really have the luxury of walking from home as much um because the as one of the me
mbers of the leadership team we were constantly there uh the the manager was there and when your boss is there the mayor is there you have to be there to make sure that you provide support um one of the things that he did for me was to be able to see up close how you know some of our elected officials really was you know looking for ways by which we could constantly Implement and do things uh for for our community members because now you couldn't even see around the table we had to engage with t
hem virtually meeting with them one onone I was able to see up close how passionate they were about things that we needed to do for our community members secondly for me was also the whole i' known about the digital divide uh prior to covid-19 but it not really hit me how bad it was uh especially for black and brown communities uh until covid-19 and that actually I was able to to listen and to hear from those who are experts of how much we have to invest in a digital infrastructure if we're goin
g to be able to bridge that divide between those who have and those who don't and the resources needed um then finally for me was the closeness Frankly Speaking that it brought to me and my family um because a lot of people of course couldn't go to many places and so Recreation was you know was um needed desperately and so we would take walks um you know kids who are not going to school you know we would you couldn't travel to many places because they were either closed and so many restaurants w
ere not open so we took walks we we had opportunities to do a lot of things together build pule pieces um assemble trains at home go and all of that and and the closeness that he just brought I think was also very healing uh for us and I don't know how the families adapted during that period but I tell you it was something that allowed us to really find ourselves recreate spend our weekends not watching TV but really getting out because people wanted to get out and so we go out since there were
no restaurants to go to and there were no amusement parks to visit we just took walks and and it was fun walking the dog hanging out you know it was just and you got to know your neighbors people you didn't see for a long time so it really was the community became very small um quickly uh while it became really huge uh over the virtual platform in person it was very small and you got to observe a lot of people up close and we came to appreciate a lot more things that's we came to appreciate lot
of the simple things that we forget to appreciate know to respect your time and to honor you kylo I just want to follow up with one more question and is do you have any additional stories or experiences that you would like to say about you know one of the things that I like to really talk about uh especially when it comes to um men like myself who uh and I'm speaking especially to black males you um who are in positions of influence it's not to shy away from getting the message across whe a budg
et director or you are a city manager or you are the person hired over planning or public transportation managing those things we have very few of us who have the privilege of being in these positions let's use it well and one of those ways that we can use it very well is to reexamine some of the policies that were developed way before our time that were developed you know not considering equity and not necess considering you know um doing the right things and taking a good look at those policie
s we examining them and making sure that we tool them uh one of the things that Ur to me quick quickly during the pandemic Frankly Speaking was um how people came to think inwardly uh and it was really more of self-preservation for a lot of us at that point in time rather than using the pandemic as an opportunity to take a step back look around us at where we currently lack and how can we make sure that we you know begin to ret our policies for the future um and so I really would like us to to d
o that um you know consistently I also happen to be a father of girls uh so I'm a girl dad and I know how important it is uh to make sure that during the pandemic um there's a lot of uh my colleagues who were either single mothers or even married um and just needed to have the flexib ability to look after their children I feel that we need to think about what the future of work looks like um you know building flexibility into our work lives or work system our work program um people can still be
productive even when they are not there in person how do we make sure we build flexibility especially there are those who not earn enough income and if we can build flexibility into their work schedule it allows them to be able to save on certain things while at the same time they can maintain their family structure especially as they raise their kids this affects especially minority uh community and leaders like me have to think about those things and make sure that we accommodate everyone uh y
ou know again like I said you can't give everyone the same thing you have to meet people where they are it's about being fair and it's about being just I believe at the end of the day that's what Equity means thank you thank you so much for sharing your story and for just being honest and authentic and real and I just really appreciate you I really appreciate your experience and all of the words of wisdom that you share with us thank you thank you Sarah for reaching out to me I appreciate that [
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