Thank you.

I am overboard.

Ms.

Trudeau.

Director, thank you so for joining us.

We appreciate you being here.

We're going to uh see if we can get your lap your um PowerPoint up on the screen.

I just raised my hand to be promoted.

Okay.

Jackie's making a way back there to help with the promotion.

Good morning.

My name is Valley.

So make sure to make Jackie the amount of today.

Right.

Good morning again, President and CEO Trudeau.

Floor is yours, ma'am.

Good morning.

Thank you for having me here this morning.

Uh Honorable Counsel.

I'm Katie Trudeau.

I'm the president and CEO of the Eastern Market Corporation.

We are the 501c3 nonprofit that manages, has the privilege to manage the market facilities on behalf of the city of Detroit.

The Eastern Market has uh over two million visit visitors annually that shop in the market on uh a uh Saturday market at the height of our growing season.

We'll see over 40,000 visitors to the Saturday market.

Um we represent as an organization not only the facilities that uh house the market but six square blocks and 43 acres of land, making us the largest public market in the United States of America.

Um we also in the neighborhood oversee or we see over 360 million dollars in in wholesale food um coming in and going out of of the neighborhood.

Um then we we run several mobile market programs where we're we're bringing pro fresh produce out into city of Detroit neighborhoods and throughout Wayne County.

A couple of uh we we like to think that we operate as an organization according to three different uh pillars.

We're a marketplace that's critical to Michigan and Detroit's regional food economy, um, and this includes several major projects that we have underway that I'll get into a little more detail on.

Um we're also we also transact over 250,000 dollars in SNAP and EBT transactions at our Saturday market um on an annual basis.

Um we're also a place to start and sustain a business.

Um, as it gets more expensive for small business owners to start and sustain their business, we offer programs around small business incubation acceleration and our Saturday market as well as our Tuesday and Sunday markets in the summer are great opportunities for small businesses to grow their customer base.

We also provide district services for brick and mortar businesses that operate in the neighborhood.

We do a lot of advocacy, community engagement, and things of that nature to ensure that those businesses um are represented and have what they need to succeed.

Um we're a dynamic commercial district where we are very proud to say everyone is welcome and encouraged to be a part of the eastern market.

We facilitate affordable access to high quality food, we support our local and regional food economy, we uh ensure access to food through our programs and our markets to to uh food to vulnerable households, and we lead planning efforts to encourage responsible growth throughout the neighborhood.

So a couple of highlights of the work that we currently have underway.

Um these are the the first few are more related to capital projects.

We have our Shed 7 wholesale distribution center under construction currently.

I gave an update on this last year.

Um this is a project that has multiple funding sources, the primary source of which is the 12 million dollar allocation from the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

It's a 43 40,000 square foot 100% cold chain compliant facility, which has never existed in the eastern market, especially under our operation.

There's dedicated dock and refrigeration space for mid-sized Michigan farmers as well as Detroit urban farmers who we work with through our programs.

And we'll we're working currently with that co-collaborative of urban growers to ensure that they'll have that.

The thing we hear most from the urban farmers who sell in our Saturday market and participate in our program is they have a lack of refrigeration space.

So they're really they're literally having to pick the product off their farm in Detroit and drive it to the eastern market, and this will allow them to expand their offerings and have dedicated space right in their city.

The programming will also include the maintaining the existing restaurant, which is Frank Stelly, as well as two large-scale wholesale distribution tenants, which are mid-sized Michigan farmers.

As I already mentioned the funding source, the cons we expect this to open in June, and a majority of the space is under lease.

Here's a rendering of the facility.

It's an existing facility that we bought that was built approximately in the 1970s.

We've invested through both the MDARD funding, new markets tax credits, as well as a grant from the Gilbert Family Foundation, approximately $8 million to bring it up to standard operating levels.

This is a an action shot of it under construction as of two days ago.

So we expect this.

We're actually ahead of schedule, which is really rare in construction.

We're really happy about that.

We're also on budget, and we expect this will open to Michigan farm Michigan and Detroit farmers in June.

Shed four redevelopment, another real high priority project of ours, $15 to $60 million total investment will allow us to offer year-round vending space to our vendors, which include many Detroit-based businesses and farmers.

This project will include really important to us because we're really at capacity, additional kitchen space, which we can offer to more food businesses to incubate their businesses, as well as a nutrition education center where folks can come to take cooking classes to learn about nutrient-dense food, where chefs could local chefs could come and have classes that would be open to the public.

And then it would also include the renovation of our historic roundhouse in the neighborhood.

This one has been more challenging to fundraise for because we're not the beneficiary of a really large grant from the state of Michigan like we were on the previous project, but we are happy to say we're about a third of the way there.

We've raised uh five and a quarter million, including a more recent allocation from Henry Ford Health System.

And here's a rendering of that project.

Wanted to spot stop and talk a little bit about our programs.

We offer a lot of small business support system services, as I mentioned.

We have a contract with Chef Idric Gode, who's a business in the business of food, is a long-standing technical assistance provider to food businesses across the city of Detroit.

In 2025, Chefi and her team had 2,000 over 2,000 touch points with entrepreneurs, and she just told me this morning that over between 70 to 75% of those entrepreneurs are Detroit-based.

We have about 19 businesses currently sharing our incubator kitchen in Shed 5.

Um, and then I won't go through all the numbers, but we are continuing to grow these programs so that we can ensure that we're helping food businesses especially to expand their operations and achieve those really important certifications like Surve Safe.

Our food access programs span several different programmatic areas.

We we continue to operate our box program where we purchase produce from local growers.

60% of our purchasing went towards Detroit black-owned farms throughout the course of this program, which started in 2023.

This program will, this will be our final year of offering this program.

The federal government did cut the funding for the LFPA program.

We're really optimistic with that with the additional infrastructure that the Shed 7 project offers, as well as a lot of efficiencies we've built and relationships we've built throughout the course of the program.

We'll be able to continue to operate this with a far lower grant or subsidy because it's been a really successful program.

Those boxes go out every week to partners, many of which are in the city of Detroit, some in the Oakland and Macomb County, but those are food boxes with locally grown produce that are going out to households every week free of charge.

Focus Hope, Brilliant Detroit.

We uh the Butzel Family Center.

Um it's been a really successful program.

It's also such it's a very important dedicated sales channel to growers, especially those in Detroit.

Um we're pivoting our farm stand program, which is one where we've brought produce out to 12 different community markets over the over the last several years to a mobile market program.

Um this is something we're doing in partnership with Wayne County, where where in 2026 will be expanded into all 43 municipalities across the county.

Um we've purchased a refrigerated farm truck, which allows us, it's like a food truck where we can vend straight out of the truck and the produce stays cold.

Um we are became last at the end of last year authorized to accept SNAP benefits at every single one of these mobile markets, so we'll be able to take those out into community and transact with um EBT SNAP benefits at those at all of those locations.

Um we are in the process of hiring dedicated staff.

We'll full time, we'll move from temporary um fellowship positions to permanent employees who drive the trucks and run the farm stands out in communities.

And I'll talk a little bit more about positions we have open currently.

We have many.

Um I mentioned the details about SNAP.

Um we're also in the process of expanding our food is medicine programming.

Um this is something we've been doing in a very small scale way with Henry Ford Health System for many years.

We're now expanding into partnerships with several medical insurance companies where they will be pro they they have a prioritization to feed their patients food in lieu of medical of medical services.

So it's an in lieu of services program.

We now have pilot programs set up with four different of the major insurance companies.

So Aetna's one, Molina is another, um, where those metal those insurance companies will be providing vouchers to their patients that they can use in our Saturday market or at our mobile markets.

So it's also an additional currency that will be going to the vendors, the farmers, um, and hopefully ensuring that better quality fresh produce is going into the households of people who need it the most, and that that's those who have health conditions like hypertension or diabetes.

Just a few, I won't read through all of these, but just wanted to highlight some of our 2025 organizational accomplishments.

Um we launched a new website, um, which has been really helpful to providing clarity and access to the markets and all of our programs.

Um it sounds boring, but it was super important.

We we migrated to new accounting software with uh officially in 2025.

We're still building that out, but it's been really important to helping us grow as an organization to continue to serve and expand on the programs that um I've I've mentioned previously.

We onboarded a new auditing auditing firm last year after using the same one for over 10 years.

And then, as I mentioned, we're currently hiring for several positions a director of advancement, which will merge our fundraising and marketing capabilities together, a special events manager.

This one I talked about last year.

It's been difficult to find somebody while we're also running all the events, so we we're doing interviews for that position currently.

Um an in-house accountant, a um several mobile markets drivers to run the programs I mentioned previously, as well as a licensed dietitian to in order to be successful in these partnerships with the insurance companies.

It's it's incumbent upon us to have a licensed dietitian on staff.

Um we doubled we I was oh, I wanted to mention that I think I have that on another slide.

We we've engaged on the I-375 project and ensured that businesses in Eastern Market won't be harmed by that project, and then we've completed several planning efforts around district wane finding and um infrastructure needs across the neighborhood and into the vacant expansion area.

It's just a screenshot of our new website.

A couple of um just to highlight of some capital investments.

We installed a new parking lot in Shed 2 at the corner of Market and Adelaide Street, um new striping throughout the district.

We've provided outreach and support around the DEGC's Riapel reconstruction project.

We've purchased many new vehicles, um, and then we've just continued to maintain the sheds and the other facilities in a state of good repair.

So a couple of programmatic updates.

Um I wanted to really sit with this for a few minutes because council has been so generous to fund this program for grants for urban farmers.

Um the dollars um we worked throughout the course of 2025 with the city's Office of Sustainability Urban Agriculture Division to design a program that would meet the parameters of the city law department.

Um, and we were really thrilled to have a program meet those parameters, and we released an RFP in September of last year.

We received 80 applications for this program.

Um we offered we we ended up awarding three $50,000 grants to farm cooperatives and six fifteen thousand dollar grants to individual farms.

Um the programs that they all are offering different programming that's all it's required to be open to the public.

Their programs will run through the end of 2026.

We release the first payments.

We're we're the we're requiring that they submit a mid-year report before we'll release the second payments, but we released the first so that they they could cash for these programs in February.

Um our website will be updated to reflect all of the different offerings that each of them will be providing starting in this spring.

We'll also provide marketing support for all of that.

Um some neighborhood updates.

Um the grant house, the state of Michigan History Center will start.

They just told me this morning they will start exterior stabilization efforts on this project as soon as next week.

Um they have half a million dollars that they've contributed.

Um they've hired um I have it written down here, a local um contractor, WCI contracting contractors.

Um they've also worked with Camilton Anderson, also a Detroit-based business on the design.

Um they will start that as soon as next week, and they um anticipate all exterior work will be completed by the fall.

Um for as to what happens inside, they're planning, they have a partnership with the Black Bottom Archives to open a small museum on the first floor.

They don't currently have the funds to build out the interior, but they will be co-fundraising for those funds in partnership with the Black Bottom Archives.

Um, and that will start that the fundraising will start this year.

We have the choice neighborhoods effort that's underway in partnership with planning and development in HRD.

We are um a key partner on that effort as the the footprint of the planning study includes all of the Eastern Market neighborhood.

Um and then wanted to just talk a little bit because it's been in the news a lot about the firm real estate portfolio, which is the 21 properties that are currently on the market.

There was an article that came out just last week about how 10 of them had interested buyers.

Um we I can say for sure, I don't know all the details about the different transactions and the state of each transaction.

I can say for sure that I know that one of them has been sold.

Um I did can't speak to the other nine.

I believe that there's been perhaps letters of interests or they're close to a contract for the other nine.

Um, our priority from day one in working with firm and their brokers has been please first prioritize the tenants if they are in there to purchase the properties.

And I know there's some situations where that is happening.

Um, and if there's no tenant in there, if it's a vacant building, or if they don't have an interest or the funds to purchase the property, please at least attempt to work with food-based businesses.

Um, that's a huge priority of ours to ensure that the neighborhood stays as an operating commercial food district.

Um I'm happy to answer other questions about that when we get to QA.

Just provided a little uh calendar for all of um, these are just the Eastern Market market events that will be happening in 2026.

As you know, there's a lot of other private events that happen throughout the year, but these are our priorities and our market days, which I think is really important for the public to know, especially that we have markets on Tuesday and Sunday in the summer months.

I keep hearing that's a little known fact.

And then I think it's known, but the the request before council um and in the mayor's um recommended budget is the 300,000 dollars of general operating support.

I do just want to um underscore this funding is critically important to us.

We have um uh in 2025 our annual operating budget was over seven million dollars.

It's very expensive to operate the historic facilities.

Um we have is super important to us to leverage this space for Detroit-based businesses for Michigan and Detroit farmers.

Um, and so in order to do that, we run these programs.

We're really lucky to get financial support from philanthropy and earn revenue, but um I would say it actually is easier to get money from philanthropy when they know that the city is in with um with a commitment to at least help us with operations because it's harder to get operational support from philanthropy than it is dedicated grants for capital projects or programs.

Um so I just wanted to make a little plug for that because it is really important for us.

And that that completes my presentation.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh we will start with uh your newest board member.

Member Renown Renata Miller.

Thanks for joining us.

I would like to say unfortunately our meeting dates conflict with the uh skill trades um meeting.

Hopefully, uh councilman at large Mary Waters will give Denzel and I some grace on those meeting dates.

We were in the car separately online videoing that as we walked into the skill trades meeting, and then I think we even had you face down just trying to get the information for our first meeting.

So we're gonna ask that Mary Waters graciously allow us to maybe rotate those meeting dates so we can be more informed.

I was wondering what is the shortfall for the box lunch program in lieu of our new government and the cutting funds for viable uh projects like this.

Uh thank you for that question and through the chair.

Um we would we estimate that with a grant allocation of about a hundred thousand dollars annually, we would it's the the expense we have remaining because we've used the USDA dollars to purchase vehicles.

We've got the Shed Seven project where we have expanded space to pack boxes and keep produce refrigerated.

We think we've gotten it down to just the cost to purchase the produce, which we estimate in the near uh around a hundred thousand dollars annually.

Um so we're pretty confident that we can raise that money and um it would help us to continue to offer that program beyond 2026.

So what was the total amount that they normally uh dispersed?

Um so in historic, so the the LFPA funding from the USDA was two million dollars over the course of three, well now four years.

We did get a no cost extension time extension on that.

So we've been running when it's all said and done, we'll have run that program for four years.

So that was about two million dollars over the course of four years.

So on average, about half a million dollars a year, about half of that went toward directly towards produce purchases.

Um like I said, I I think we can um because of other efficiencies we've created in the program, we could still man uh run that program with an influx of about a hundred thousand or so.

Okay, also what is the uh number that the black bottom archives need to build out or start the build out?

I think it's imperative that we reflect that history and that uh development, especially if it's gonna showcase on the first floor.

That's a destination right there, and it's in my district.

So I am do you have a number for that?

I um through the chair, I will confirm that with the Michigan His History Center.

My understanding is it's about half a million, but I will confirm that number exactly.

Okay, if possible, could you get the numbers prior to us going into our executive session?

And so I won't say anything now regarding the 300, or should I just proceed?

If you would like to post it in and then okay.

I'd like to make a motion to um move the 300,000 dollar request over to the executive section.

With discussion, uh there's a motion on the floor with discussion.

Member McCampbell would join you on that, Rebecca Miller.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Member Miller would like to member McCampbell would like to join as well.

Colleagues, any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Uh Pro Tim Young.

Thank you, uh, Ms.

President.

Um Ms.

President, I don't know if this is appropriate.

I think the member cow member Callaway, did you have did you have something you wanted to?

Is that okay?

Or I'm not okay.

I just want to make sure I'm just trying to be open.

All right, thank you again, Miss President Free Lucian.

But uh how you doing?

Good to see you.

Um, I wanted to ask you really quickly.

So I have a feeding program where I feed people in bustle.

And I want to know do you partner up with people who are either city council members or do you partner up with the city in terms of feeding people either at the recreation centers like I do or other places?

How does that work?

Uh through the chair, um, I think we are currently partnered with our food box program where I think we're sending 50 boxes a week during the the summer months.

Right to council through the I think I was part of that, and I think it stopped.

Okay.

So does one.

Yeah.

Well, I'll look into that, but that's something we're happy to continue.

Um the food box program is our easiest way to partner and provide food.

Um, and then we do occasionally um partner with council offices or other nonprofits on on providing fresh produce for sort of one-off events.

Okay.

So, like community meetings or community events will provide apples and bananas or things of that nature.

But there's eggs, and then there is uh um, I forgot what the title is, forgive me, but on Field Street, there's like a refrigerator.

It's like open to the public, and I want to know do you partner with them as well?

And have anyone approached you at all or trying to maybe to expand that throughout the city, you know, places where they right now it's on field street, you know.

Sweet, you know, is like that church over there.

And you know, I just want to know, and it's just opi.

People come in there, they take the food out of there.

I filled it up with my family a couple times, and they'll put eggs and you know, uh, you know, um we I don't we would have put eggs and hot dogs and a whole bunch of stuff over there.

And so I just want to know is that something that you partner with at all?

Yes, and could we work with you maybe to expand that?

And has there been an analysis of dealing with the issue of uh does how that addresses food insecurity?

Because I think it's like at a 69% clip in the city of Detroit right now.

Um so through the chair, we do we partner with several community fridges.

I think there's five or six throughout the city.

Okay.

Um we're actually as part of the choice effort, we're working with the housing commission to locate a new community fridge at the public housing uh properties that are subject to that effort.

That will happen regardless of whether an implementation grant is awarded by HUD or not.

And that will be one that we're more directly partnered on because it's within um it's very close proximity to our neighborhood.

Um, but then all the others we oft we will drop off excess food.

We'll even use, we have been known because we have a lot of special events at our facilities.

We've even been known to take food that was not consumed at the event in containers to the community fridges, especially on Field Street.

Um so we are partnered on all of those that um that runs through our food program team as well as Chef E manages some of those relationships with the community fridges.

Excellent.

And then my final question I just want to ask you is what is your plans involving making Eastern Market uh artificial intelligence Midwest food logistics hub.

Uh we don't currently have uh plans for we're we're doing a lot of other work around um logistics, and we've partnered with the city on the Toyota Mobility Foundation innovation challenge, and so that's helped us to improve a lot of our and innovate around several logistics items, but we haven't uh currently, nor has that effort looked at AI.

Okay, well, well, this is I mean, uh as much as disheartened as I am to hear you say that this is the opportunity to try to convince you why.

So first of all, let me say because we're close to the Canadian and uh Detroit River, I think it's like 25% of the trade comes, you know, 20 can in the United States uh comes across the U Bridge.

The artificial intelligence logistics hub would work like this.

Farmers would input inventory into the AI platform before arriving.

Restaurants, grocery stores, and institutions place orders digitally.

AI matches buyers and sellers automatically, trucks receive optimized delivery routes, and inventory and pricing will be updated in real time.

Now, the economic projection of this for 10 years will be a billion dollar regional impact.

So 1.8, 2.2 billion dollars, 10-year AI scenario.

Okay.

No, 1 billion, sorry, today, excuse me.

2,000 jobs today, 3,500 to 4,000 jobs in 10 years.

And you know, the vendor revenue, it vendor revenue food waste, Detroit tax revenues baseline.

But over 10 years, that would grow from 35% to 60% for vendor revenue, food waste we reduced by 40 to 60 percent, and the tax revenue would increase from 8 million to 15 million dollars annually.

So not only would you be more efficient and effective, economically more prosperous, and we're promoting the largest, I think, municipal farmers market in the country.

But also we would be able to bring more tax dollars into the city of Detroit.

It's a very rare win-win scenario.

So I would highly encourage you to reconsider or to reinvest in artificial intelligence.

Thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate it.

That is all, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Just got a quick question.

Uh can you talk about uh any relationship or support uh provided?

I know it was there in the past, but with our local neighborhood uh farmers market with the um uh eastern market.

Uh thank you, uh Chair Tate.

Uh we are so I mentioned the mobile markets program and all of the the various local farmers markets in the city of Detroit who we've partnered with historically, we will continue to partner with through that effort.

We've changed the offering a little bit, so what we are offering to those local markets is um either a stop from the mobile the the mobile farmers market for several hours where folks can come and and purchase the produce, or what we're finding, um, and in your district, it's grandma the Grandmont Rosedale farmers market.

What we're finding, we're also offering to provide the food free of charge for them to sell locally or to give distribute free of charge, whatever meets their constituent needs um best.

And so the for instance in Grandmont Rosedale, that's the option that they chose.

So we're still partnering, we're still at the table with all these local farmers' markets, um, but we're sort of streamlining some of the ways in which we're present and working to offer um services to them that meet the needs of their respective constituents.

So how do you evaluate the uh efficiency, the impact of your participation or involvement?

I I mean I'll I'll say this now.

I mean, it's phenomenal um uh opportunity for folks in the neighborhood.

But we have seen the numbers, you know, dive a bit in the community.

I don't know if that's the same uh with the other local uh farmer farmers' markets within our neighborhoods, but certainly that one, the numbers are are certainly lower.

Have you looked at the impact of your participation involvement and see if maybe the request that they're they're seeking may not be what's necessarily in the best interest of your operation, and maybe there's some other uh assistance that can be provided.

So for the way we evaluated in I mean, there's lots of different factors that go into the impact of these various programs, and one of but one of the primary ways that we evaluate it is the number of purchases, and we have seen purchases at our where we pop up at various community markets go down.

And what we learned with from Grandmont Rosedale especially was that giving them the food to either hand out or sell, depending on what they feel is needed for their constituents, will actually help them to draw more customers to the market.

If they give it away for free, that's a draw for customers to come.

They come for the produce, and then perhaps they may shop it with the other vendors.

Um so it's it's this is a program that we're evolving currently because we are trying to expand into so many other communities.

Um, but we um we are working closely with each of the Detroit-based farmers' markets to make sure that what however whatever support we're providing um will expand the impact of their local farmers market and um and help them to meet the needs of their constituents the but the best they can.

But again, how how are you what's your litmus test on determining determining the success of the assistance?

Yeah, we're seeing in some at some of the local farmers' markets that we're only seeing maybe 20 or 30 dollars of sales for a whole day of being out there in produce.

Um and it's not necessarily an indicator of the service we're providing, but we're finding that some of the local farmer farmers' markets are having trouble attracting the customer base, and some of them feel that being able to give away the produce for free will actually draw more customers to the market to then shop with other vendors.

So it's a little bit more of an art than a science because every farmers market is different, but um, including the eastern market, but we're really trying to do what we can to be a good partner to them and ensure that more fresh produce is getting out to communities across the city.

Okay.

Definitely want to uh I've got a few more questions along that line of questioning that I will provide in writing.

But right now we'd like to go to uh colleague Santiago Romero.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through the chair, good morning.

I just have really one uh thoughts of questioning for right now, and I'm happy that we brought up community fridges.

Um that is something that is ongoing um that is really incredible, and it's good to hear that you are partnering with some of those efforts already.

I'm I'm just wondering how do you partner with any commercial grocery stores, or is that a possibility because a lot of our neighborhoods want grocery stores?

And while we're working to make sure that our neighborhoods, our corridors are ready for that commercial development.

Um, I'm now looking for the grocery stores.

Um, and I know that it's gonna be hard to bring the Aldi's or the others.

Um, but we have a market and we have farmers.

Um so an example is there is a potential project coming on on Werner and Livernoy, and they want to bring a small um grocery store and they're asking around to the existing folks now.

Um, but if that doesn't work, can the eastern market help?

Is there a way that we can connect available real estate that's already there to the food to be brought in?

I I guess I'm just trying to figure out how we can insert this into the system into the process.

Yeah, um, through the chair.

We have a relationship with almost all of the local grocery stores across Metro Detroit.

Um Metro Detroit is still home to the most diverse offering of family-owned grocery stores.

So we're in other regions, those grocery stores have sold to chains.

We still have a lot of family-owned grocery stores.

So we have a relationship with all those different grocery stores because they're purchasing wholesale um produce in eastern market.

That's another reason why the Shed 7 project is so important.

Uh there's a lot um wholesale buying um behavior has adapted to the Fort Street terminal where um there's not that much locally grown produce.

Um it's not always perhaps the highest quality.

Um and so the Shed 7 project helps us to provide access and direct purchasing of more Michigan-grown produce to those local grocery store chains.

Um so we have those relationships.

But we would be happy to sit at a table and help brainstorm around how we do have the relationships with the farmers.

We know the grocers.

So where we might be able to be a broker of some of those conversations or just be of service, we're happy to do so.

Thank you through the chair.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

So there, like always, lots of pieces for this.

And as we build the storefronts, it sounds like we have the produce.

We need the operations, which is what they're seeking right now.

Okay, this is helpful to know.

We will just continue to work on this.

Um now I have questions on operations.

Is that just staff that we can hire?

Can we hire locally to manage the so it's a different conversation too?

Yeah, so through the chair, I would just say we have programmatic staff at Eastern Market who would be able to help answer some of those questions, just as more of like a technical assistance or a resource where that may not be what they do now, but they've done it in their past, and that's why they work at Eastern Market to bring some of that institutional knowledge to the market.

So we I'd be happy to set up follow-up conversations, and we're happy to help however we can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's it for me, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

Oh, she's not the way.

Member Benson.

Thank you, Mr.

Deal.

Thank you for being here today and all the hard work that you do.

Um, we see your boxes throughout the district at a number of events.

We see them at the Freck.

I see them at elementary schools, and so just really want to say thank you.

I don't have any questions today.

I know about the work that you do, so please continue on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good morning, Miss Trudeau.

Um I I think you all do an excellent job with the small team that you have.

Um, so the work that you do is greatly appreciated.

Um I do want to, I believe one of my colleagues may have been the sponsor, the supporter of the grant fund.

So I'm going to step away from that, but I do just want to ask if you can share if anyone is receiving support to access water for their farms.

For their farms.

Uh through the chair.

We we actually looked, so two things on that note is one it would not meet the parameters of Detroit's law department because it would be a capital improvement to private property.

But we also, this is why the relationship with this Office of Sustainability and the Division of Urban Agriculture, so Tefrira Rushdon and Patrice Brown have been were incredible partners to us on figuring this whole thing out, and they have their fingers on the pulse of what's happening in all of the um on many of the urban farms across the city.

And they they said that there's other dollars that I think it's keep growing Detroit.

I can get more information on it, but I believe there's other money in the farming ecosystem explicitly for water hookups.

So what we did evaluate that because we knew it was a need, and we felt that we learned through the process that it was a need that there's a whole conversation about permitting and and how you build the water hookup that T and Patrice are working on, but um, but when it comes to just pure dollars, we do I do believe that there's dollars and grant opportunities out there to help the farmers to get that specific infrastructure where this these dollars can go towards programming and and help to educate more farmers across the city as well as give those farms some cash in um from from the city to uh to invest back into their farms.

Well, thank you for that.

I'm actually working with Patrice Anti um on this very issue.

Um, and we'll be working with the water department just to make sure that the support is there for them.

Um, but I also noted that you indicated I believe 60 farmers applied for the grant.

80.

80 farmers applied for the grant, and I know that there is funding that's coming from the USDA that's supporting their farms as well.

I think it's extremely important is vital for them to have access to water in order for them to actually do the work they do.

Um, whether it is to provide to sell uh produce at the market or to provide um produce to residents in the community, they can't grow anything without water.

Yeah, and if we're just relying upon the water that comes from the sky, it will likely not happen.

And so I'm wondering if you might be willing and able to help lean in on that conversation with us just to make sure that we're we're helping them to have sustainable farms, right?

Um just to make sure that they can actually grow the produce to be able to continue doing the the great work that they do throughout the city.

Yes, uh through the chair, I'm certainly willing and able to to lean in on that conversation.

And the one thing I would mention that was sort of an unexpected outcome of this grant program is it gave us an awareness of all of these farms across the city.

And so now the Office of Sustainability has that awareness and can leverage this opportunity to be in touch with those farms to even if they don't even if we don't have the dollars to ensure that every single one has a water hookup.

Now we know where they are and what they're what they're doing for the community and can do additional outreach and um work with them through permitting processes and things of that nature.

So I'm I'm happy to be a part of any of those conversations.

Thank you for that, and that is a great point.

Um and I don't know if you can share maybe the location of the farms because I'm actually uh working with the water department to ensure that um we don't just completely remove the opportunity to access to tap into the city's water line for those farms, especially those that may be larger that need access, as opposed to some who may say, okay, we just use a connection from a an adjacent property or or things of that nature if it's small and if that's sustainable.

Um the other thing I was going to ask was relative to what council president asked about, which was um really just connecting urban farmers to like um wholesale buyers, uh institutions, local grocery stores, things of that nature.

Uh yes, through the chair, we are we are actually doing a lot of work around that.

The um dedicated dock and refrigeration space at the Shed Shed Seven project will allow so I would love to elaborate on this project just a little bit because it's pretty exciting.

So the way that a large-scale farm, mid-sized farm in Metro Detroit.

So we have, for instance, a farm that will operate a large portion of the space there from that's in Monroe County.

They have it's Rulig Farms, they have 1,500 acres.

It's still a farm size and a family-owned business that's struggling to survive in the in this current climate, as well as with the state of sort of agriculture across the country.

So they will occupy one of the large suites that are part of this project and will likely rent from us several coolers where they'll have pallet upon pallet of fresh produce that they've grown on their farm and they'll sell it wholesale and they're selling to grocery stores across the region.

The urban growers don't necessarily because they're their farms are of varying size.

I'm I would venture that the largest is one acre as opposed to as compared to 1500.

They're in need of maybe a single pallet space within a cooler where they can where they can store a whole pallet of collard greens or a whole pallet of um herbs, fresh herbs that they've grown on farm.

And they're so they're not necessarily producing enough product to sell individually at wholesale, but as we bring this facility into operation, they can share, and the the restaurant or the grocery store who's coming to to Eastern Market to buy it wholesale will be able to shop at the co collaborative um at the cooperative space of all the urban farmers.

So it's a way of of bringing together their their individual power into something that can add up to perhaps that of a mid-sized um suburban or or rural farm in the state of Michigan.

So that's one of the ways we're doing that, and and it's be able being able to have that wholesale opportunity for those farmers makes it a lot easier, and it's cold chain compliant.

That's a really important requirement for a lot of grocery stores as well as institutions.

So the the right type of technology and the cold chain compliance as well as the display and and storage space for those farms to sell at really helps us to expand their opportunities to sell to institutions and grocery stores.

Um and then we're also just it's we have a program at their Saturday market where we call it Mighty Microsoft where we sort of prioritize space for Detroit urban farmers.

Um and the Saturday market's a really great way to build customer base.

We have a lot of local restaurants that shop there already.

We're also we get involved in conversations with DPS CD where we can at least pilot programs where the school district is purchasing from urban farmers.

Um they have an interest in it, it's just it can just be challenging, and I think Shed Seven will help with that.

And I think Shed 7 will help with that.

But but yeah, so we tried it.

We're at this, we're at the middle of a lot of those conversations, and it is a priority for us.

I would say on the whole, we just want to support agriculture across the state of Michigan and especially in Detroit, and where we can increase sales channels for farmers.

That's where we think we're a commercial district where we can provide a lot of value.

So we're doing it for for all, every farmer that we can.

Thank you.

And uh congratulations on your progress with you at Savannah.

That's very exciting.

Um I have a number of additional questions.

I'm not sure if they've made their way to you yet, but they will be coming soon.

All right, I'm ready.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Cowway.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

And just congratulations on all of your new programming and new partnerships and all your creative and innovative ways of doing entering those partnerships and establishing those programs.

You and your team are doing amazing things over there and looking forward to you being able to expand your expand your team.

I have a number of questions.

And working with the law department, um, getting over all those hurdles, legal hurdles, and turning it into a grant program that was very, very innovative.

And you um indicated 80 applicants, three $50,000 awardees, and six fifteen thousand dollars awardees.

Did I get that right?

Yes, that's correct.

We ended up, we added, so we released oh, sorry, through the chair.

We released 225,000, but we had so many applicants we added another $15,000 award.

So we ended up awarding 240,000.

Okay, so I I'm definitely going to ask for um 240,000 to cover the program for the next um next fiscal year.

And thank you for getting that off the ground.

I've heard nothing but um wonderful um results, um, compliments, and people are inspired and encouraged, and thank you for the market.

I think the local market is right there, 7 Mile and Woodworth.

I I typically I typically see Eastern Market on that campus.

So is that one of your local markets at Seven Mile and Woodworth?

Yes, uh, through the chair, that's the the Palmer Park uh farmers market.

So that's another market local market where we we won't be there for the full day, but we are offering them the similar uh opportunities that I mentioned to presentate that we'll they have the opportunity to have our mobile market present for a portion of the day or we will offer them the the produce that we would have been there selling ourselves will offer to them to to either sell themselves or give away um whichever they find uh meets their constituents' needs best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um that's one of my markets.

Um my first question is so I am going to uh make a motion to put the 240,000 dollars into the budget to cover the new grant program since you found a way with the law department to actually uh award that amount of money.

So we'll go with 240 so you don't have to look for the additional 15.

I think um I think we should be able to find it.

Um Kellerway, you want to make the motion now?

Oh, sure.

All right, there's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Well, see, you walked up, thank you, thank you, um, Mr.

President.

You walked away with 240,000 dollars, isn't that something?

Not yet.

Well, that way look as just as the late Jesse Jackson would say, keep hope alive.

Keep hope alive.

We're gonna keep hope alive.

But anyway, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair, for that.

So we're getting it started.

All right, my my my main question is with the Drew Charles.

Um, I don't know if you're aware of the Charles R Drew Transition Center for Young Adults with exceptional um needs.

Are you aware of that?

It's right at the corner of Chicago and Wyoming, and they have a raised garden in the back.

They have the I don't know what you call the dome that covers the the vegetables and fruits as they are growing.

Are you familiar with the Charles R Drew Transition Center for young adults with exceptional needs?

I am I am not familiar with that, but I'm I don't live very far from there, so I'm happy to Okay.

So there's McKinsey, the old McKenzie High School, which is now a middle school, but right across the street, it is the Charles R.

Drew Transition Center for young adults with exceptional needs.

And they garden.

They garden.

So I'm hoping that we can establish a partnership with the Eastern Market and what you're doing with um the urban farmers, and maybe they can go and teach the young adults how to better farm or improve their farming skills.

Um and I'll get you that information.

I'm hoping we can make that happen.

Um, and I'll port all of my questions to you.

My main question is preserving and maintaining the character of Eastern Market with respect to the 21 properties that are being sold from the firm real estate LLC.

I see in Cranes that 10 are pending right now, and you indicated that earlier.

What can we do to protect the care know it's gonna be a zoning question?

So I'm hoping Mr.

Marcel Todd is listening because I'll put that through to Mr.

Marcel Todd.

He's not here.

What can we do in your opinion before I um give an assignment to uh Mr.

Marcel Tot through CPC to preserve and protect the character of the Eastern market?

I really appreciate that question and through the chair.

Um that's of the utmost importance to us as well.

It's in a way we were glad that they finally put these properties on the market because they had been held up and not some of them have been improved, but many have just sat vacant for many years since they were first purchased.

So we're grateful that this represents an opportunity to free up properties that have been that were frankly just sat on for many years.

Um but I will say that in 2022, we did rezone.

I say we because I was in the planning and development department at the time, um, the and it was a partnership of the DEGC, the planning development, and um the Eastern Market partnership.

The whole neighborhood, over 2,000 parcels was rezoned to what's uh a specialized zoning classification known as MKT zoning, and a lot of these properties are subject to the MKT designation.

Um so there are several restrictions on the properties due to that MKT zoning.

Um they you know housing can go into the properties, there you can have like an adaptive reuse of an old food facility, um, but there's they have to go through um a special land use process to to put housing in there.

Um a lot of the facilities actually aren't that conducive to an adaptive reuse, they're fairly small footprints, they're probably more conducive to a grocery like uh I'm sorry, a restaurant use or maybe a small scale food production use, and the MKT zoning encourages all of that food related use.

So that's good news that and what I mean the rezoning happened partially because the there was this mass purchase of all of these properties back around 2018 and 2019.

Um so that's good news that gives us some control already in from a zoning standpoint.

Um the other thing I would say is some of the properties are adjacent to the local historic district, so the the market sheds are a local historic district.

The district doesn't expand beyond the shed footprint, but they do have adjacency, and so they will be required to at least apply for uh an advisory opinion to the historic district commission.

There won't be a um uh a permit that's required, but it will be an advisory opinion.

Um, and so that's another way in which the redevelopment of these properties will be coming before other department or a public body.

Um so I also I'm I'm grateful for my own experience at the city for many years as we're having to navigate through this um this challenge.

It's very difficult to have this many properties for sale and not really knowing how what's what's going to happen, but I feel like um I have seen as sort of detailed, I've seen a lot of the history of the neighborhood.

Um I served in one of the council, I mean the mayoral appointed board seats for many years.

So I I got to observe the whole trajectory of this, and I am not going to let the authenticity of the eastern market um uh suffer if I if I can do anything about it.

I um have been pretty vocal in some of these conversations with the brokers.

Um I I just it's just so critically important.

We have such a gem in the eastern market.

Um there's not only the public market itself, but the district, we have an operating 120-year-old commercial food district.

No one in America has that anymore.

All these neighborhoods changed in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and we still have it.

We have 100 and 120-year-old businesses that Wolverine Packing employs 800 people, and they've been operating for over 100 years.

So it is really truly our priority.

We want to see good things happen.

We want to see the neighborhood improve.

We want to see housing go in in and around the neighborhood, but we want to make sure that it goes in the direction that really protects the businesses, protects the vendors, um, and keeps Eastern Market what it is for another hundred years.

Like it's just so important.

Well, thank you so much, Miss Eastern Market.

Thank you so much.

And let me tell you why I say that.

We need you where you are because you are the protector of that space, and you're going to make sure that that character is protected and preserved.

So I am grateful that I asked that question, and you went on and on and on because you have already been thinking about it.

Um and then lastly, um green infrastructure in the Eastern Market, doing a lot of development, solar solar panels on buildings, rain barrels.

I don't see a lot of the rain barrels out there when I come.

And that could be a partial solution and also something for the children.

I know they walk through the market, but if they had like a rain garden or if they could see how we use the rain um barrel, the water, the water from the rain barrels, just something that is more engaging for our kids.

Because it's a lot of kids that come with their families, and they're just walking looking, but there's nothing for them to do.

There's not a play area, there's nothing for them to plant, get in the ground, and you know, have a garden.

Maybe the next next Saturday they come, they can see it's sprouting up through the ground.

Just something that they can do to engage them instead of just being, you know, walk through the market.

Yeah.

Something that they can touch and engage.

But and that's my last question.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

I appreciate that question.

And through the chair.

Um that I agree with you.

We could use more green infrastructure in the neighborhood, more greenery, and more things for children to do aside from just walk through the market itself.

Um, we do have some grant dollars from the Kreske Foundation to spend on the district over the next two years.

So we will be looking at sort of small scale interventions that we can make in the neighborhood that beautify the neighborhood and maybe provide some opportunity for some placemaking and activities.

Um they're limited dollars, but it we did the planning effort with Smith Group last year around streetscaping and wayfinding that looked at some of these things.

So we now have the document that steers us in the right direction, and we have some resources.

So I'm hopeful that in the next two to three years, we'll be to able to invest some of those dollars directly into the public infrastructure in a way that hopefully does a little to manage water, beautifies the neighborhood, makes it a little greener, and ideally provide at least a safer space for the for the kids.

I have a three-year-old, so I I I get it.

It's it it's there's a lot of pavement.

Um, and it would be nice for there to be more um for the kids to do.

Thank you.

And I'll send you the rest of my questions.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good morning.

Uh I it is um an honor to be on the Eastern Market uh board.

Uh I share when I was on the first meeting about how I love going down to the Eastern Market.

I love Flower Day.

I keep saying hopefully this year is the day that the year that I could keep my flowers alive when I take them home, but we will see.

Uh so I just want to also extend the gratitude and thanks of all that you're doing at Eastern Market.

Um and really excited about Shed Seven as well.

Um I had a question on Sher Seven because you mentioned the dedicated space for um the urban farms.

Do you because I know it's a lot of is a large facility.

Do you know how much of that square footage will be dedicated to that?

I um through the chair, I don't know that figure off the top of my head, but I'm happy to send that in my follow-up responses.

Um I think it's about 5,000 square feet.

Okay.

But I I'll I'll get that to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then as you I know you've went over various programs and initiatives that you all have at Eastern Market also in the community.

Um to part question, but if you could just share the uh the uh markets in D seven that you all are working in, and also um you went over those programs, but are there any other ideas or or thoughts that you have like if we could implement this um to expand the reach of Eastern Market in neighborhoods, especially for me being on a board, one thing I I thought of uh think about often is how do we even expand the reach of Eastern Market for folks that are uh uh in the Cody Rouge area that are in far west that because we hear from folks that even on that other side of Rouge Park, they're they're like, oh, it would be great if we could have some type of instance of a farmer's market or even a drop-in on produce in that area as well.

So um, through the chair, I will get you a list of district seven.

I don't know all of them off the top of my head.

I do know that we do several things in Rouge Park.

Um, and then what I would say as to things that we can offer, it would be that the benefit of streamlining our offerings to community markets is that we can do more of it.

So what I the the offering I mentioned of you know, two to three hours of our mobile market at a location or um of the food pack that's the produce that we might have sold um with a day at a farmer's market, those I would be happy to follow up with your office with what that looks like.

We it we we without grant funding, it's hard for us to do those free of charge, but the it's a pretty low expense, and we do have grant funding, so it's just a conversation of what how how we do that, but the streamlining is is helping us to be more responsive to requests like this where because there's a lot of folks who want this kind of thing, and if we can streamline and build efficiencies in how we do it through a refrigerated truck, through food packs, that we can reach more people.

And just uh thank you.

Just a quick follow-up on that.

Is that would like for example, if a neighborhood association wanted to just have like a um monthly type of drop-in with like the refrigerator truck or something?

Is that something that could potentially happen?

Yes in that way.

Okay.

Yeah, if you could give me that information, um that would be great, just so maybe there's something we could help in that way.

So thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um finally, Member Waters.

All right, good.

Thank you.

And good morning.

I'll be I'll be quick.

Thank you for your spirit of cooperation.

Uh really appreciate that.

Um how is your staffing?

Uh through the chair, we're we're pretty short staffed right now.

Um, but we have five positions that we're filling right now.

Um yeah, so I would say and our goal is to get several of those filled by May 1st so that we have a bigger staff come flower day, which is not only our biggest event of the year, but it's also the kickoff of our busy season.

You're having a difficult time fulfilling those positions, filling those positions or something.

Um, not currently, it was more that we've been with the leadership change with um my with Dan Carmen's retirement and um and re we've I've as it's probably come across in my presentation, we've been rebuilding a lot of our internal systems around finance and fundraising.

So it's really sort of an or reorganization that's meant that we now know who we want to hire and the right types of jobs.

Um so um we have had a little bit of turnover too, so we're filling we're filling positions.

We so for instance our fundraising director retired in April of last year.

So I we've had a lot of interest in the positions that are currently being advertised.

So you don't need new staffing, you just need to fill those positions.

We need to fill those positions, and we're always in need of of individuals to work on our facilities team.

So that those are the folks who clean and operate and are at the Saturday market all day.

So we're always in need of of people on that team as well.

All right.

Then the next quick question would be um your evening events, does that help you to generate revenue?

Yeah, so um that thank you for that question through the chair.

Um a big source of our of our operating budget is earned revenue through private facility rentals.

So those would be weddings, evening events, corporate events um, and um we're we're working to see the funding environment is challenging right now at the federal and state level.

So where we can bring in more sources of earned revenue to operate a more sustainable business model, we're really prioritizing that.

Um so we're it it's just scheduling those events around all of our public markets.

Um, but I think I'm optimistic we can expand it.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Thank you.

Um we have any additional questions or motions from colleagues?

Member Miller.

I just want to say, as a one of your new board members, I am excited about your commitment to maintain the historical fabric of the Eastern Market.

Thank you, Councilmember Callaway for bringing that up.

You are Miss Eastern Market, we're gonna name you that so many times.

After sitting in on so many meetings, I see where people come into our city, developers come into our city and they get first dibs on changing the historic nature, the zoning and everything else, which I am totally against.

So we need people in place to fight to maintain those things because sometimes it falls on deaf ears.

This is Detroit, it has a lot of history that we want to maintain.

Yes, whether people like it or not.

So we need people in place that's gonna fight for those things.

We need people appointed to those uh um positions that's gonna fight for those things.

So I am an advocate for it, and I look forward to even speaking with our mayor, some of our um uh pointed people, they need to have understand what we represent, and that is Detroit and this amazing history.

So thank you again.

I look forward to starting with you, and I am excited about all the new developments.

I'm excited about the programs, and thank you, uh member Calway for bringing that additional amount.

I was looking to add some myself for those two things, the box lunches and the um the black bottom archives.

So I'm gonna schedule a meeting with them and then maybe we can collaborate and I'll come back with a better number for our executive session.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any for any motions, colleagues?

Um member uh Pro Tim Young.

I I didn't have any motion.

I just wanted to add.

I just want to say I appreciate the word that you do.

It sounds like it's a new name and new hashtag, Ms.

Eastern Market.

Uh, but I just want to ask you.

I was talking about artificial intelligence, and I ended.

I want to ask you, did you did you have it?

Seemed like you wanted to respond to that.

Did you want to respond?

If not, that's fine.

I just want to make sure I give you the opportunity if you did.

I appreciate that.

And through the chair, I we're happy to look into it.

And I think that the sort of the lowest hanging fruit opportunity would be the Shed Seven project as we're building out logistics.

So that would be we're happy to look into that.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Thank you.

Before you leave, I wanted to announce if there's anyone who would like to provide public comment, please raise your hand now.

Uh either on in public or online.

Um any final words.

Uh uh just thank you for the opportunity.

I did want to take a moment to recognize our newest board members and council members uh McCampbell and Councilmember Miller.

We're very excited to have you on the board um and look forward to working with you over the coming years.

So thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for for that.

And we will now close the the collection of public comments.

You don't see anyone in the committee of the whole uh team.

Let's pull up the clock.

We're gonna give everyone one minute for general public comment.

Ms.

Trudeau, you you are you released.

Thank you so much.

As I mentioned, we will be having abbreviated public comments during our public hearings as we move towards the March 30th general public comment or comment public comment uh that's designed for the general budget uh for all of the various hearings to adjust the time, please.

Okay, team who's our first caller.

Our first caller is Betty A.

Varner.

Ms.

Betty A.

Vernon, thank you for joining us.

The floor is yours.

General public comment.

Uh good afternoon to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Barner, president, president of DeSoda Els World Black Association.

Um allocating for our association and for other black clubs and uh uh people who are doing the work in their community.

Uh please allocate monies to uh help us pay the land use hearing fee when we want to uh improve our community and uh start and have projects.

We have to go in front of the land use hearing, uh the BC, I think program, and uh pay a $1,500 fee.

I think it is before we can um be approved or not be approved for a project.

Also allocate monies for um organizations who need the help with their uh corridors that is in their area, and don't forget about uh my think of thank you so much.

Just want to remind folks we have one minute for general public comment.

Keep your eyes on the clock because we definitely want to hear what you have to say.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is owner Papa.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Good afternoon.

Uh and through the chair, may I be heard?

Yes, ma'am.

I would like to have had uh questions responded to by the people involved in the hearings, but uh that is not possible.

And it is not part of um a hearing.

I should have ability to ask questions.

And I guess you're gonna give us five minutes uh at March 30th, I guess.

At any rate, um, we talked about coyotes yesterday.

Um, and I want to say to this body that you all voted for chickens and ducks all over the city.

And they're not only food source for you, they're also food source for predators.

And if you look at um the predatory birds that have moved into um this area, um, I think it was not a smart move to allow chickens all over the city.

There are health reasons why you shouldn't do that, and there are many other reasons, but this is the work of this body.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Kahara Amad.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

General public comment.

Thank you.

I thought for the opportunity.

I I like the presentation about the Eastern Market.

It sounds like a very good endeavor.

I'd like to see more involvement with the children.

I like how you're doing that.

I think that'd be great.

Dexter.

Well, um, the um part that we that uh councilwoman Callaway brought up about uh the um uh people who are young people who are growing food over on uh Chicago and uh Wyoming is a good uh thing that she brought up to also take advantage of that.

I'd like to see more uh work from by the Eastern Market with the children uh at the schools.

Um if you can do that, uh have them come out to the Eastern market, show them how to operate a business, a uh um uh business and grocery in their neighborhood because we have a food desert.

Oh thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is William M.

Davis.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

You have one minute, general public comment.

Uh good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Yes, sir.

Okay, start with the building authority.

I I think that uh the building authority should also be able to give uh land to work city workers and retirees at the same rate that um the land bank does.

That would be very helpful in in promoting uh equity and also um development.

Also, they should give a discount to uh community groups that's physically inside the city of Detroit.

Far too often my money goes to others.

Also, as relates to Eastern Market, I love Eastern Market.

I love going there.

Only problem I have with Eastern Market is that it's very congested at times.

I think it would be very good if we could get uh maybe a smaller one on the west side of Detroit, maybe on the border of District 7 and District One.

Uh so that that could facilitate you know reduction and and pollution and stuff going downtown and also make it easier for some of our Western uh sub suburban communities to take part.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is named as iPhone.

All right, iPhone, the floor is yours.

You have one minute, general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

Yes.

I like the idea.

Uh I've had a long time ago.

We need to have some eating clubs close to some of these uh urban farms so people come and they eat together.

You have less waste of food, community can connect and maybe start working together.

Uh and also you need to do the stormwater, figure out how to use that stormwater and instead of having it going down our sewage going down to Toledo, you can connect that with the development of the urban farm.

So they got the farm the stormwater instead of the city water.

I know somebody spent uh seven thousand dollars years ago, and now I'd be probably double that with the water rates.

Just trying to water her farm over on uh Grand River and Trumble at Spirit of Hope.

So those are the two suggestions, but also that's not right that you thank you.

Next caller, please.

So that is the end of online callers.

Okay.

That will take us to the end of our general public comment for the morning session.

We will begin.

Uh colleagues, we want to give the committee an opportunity to get back.

Um are we talking two o'clock or two thirty again today?

Two o'clock, two o'clock.

I see two.

That's not a peace sign.

I see two o'clock.

So we shall we shall um uh recess and return uh for our two o'clock um public hearings.