Soledad im soledad obrien. Welcome to matter of fact. For many from minneapolis to austin and seattle to new york, cities across america are fighting gentrification in some of their poorest neighborhoods. By definition, gentrification means renovating a district to make it more refined or middle class. In practice, it often turns from but in West Louisville, kentucky, theyre trying to change that. We first introduced you to the historic russell neighborhood in West Louisville back in january. Weve been following the citys bold plan. Revive russell without pushing out the people who already live there. Usually minority and lower income. As weve shown you, there have been ups and downs and in our third installment of the series, americas cities russell rising, we look at how residents are taking the lead in revitalizing their own neighborhood. All across West Louisville, houses that were once in shambles are coming to life. Or getting a coat of paint. Or a window. The people of West Louisville, a community in decline for 50 years, are making it their business to bring it back. Butch m grew up in West Louisville. He left for a new opportunity with the german football league. When he got wind of efforts to revitalize West Louisville, it got him thinking about how he could help. This is cute. Thank you. Soledad you had an epiphany. I did have an epiphany. That was that i was doing well, i made it out. I should be giving back. Soledad with friends from high school, butch started sponsor4success and began raising money for local students. Now theyve moved into housing. It definitely needed new floors so we laid new carpet here. Soledad is the plan to take the houses, clean them up and sell them right away . Not sell them right away. But the plan is to take the houses, update them, clean them up, make them decent for people to live in. Hold them for a little while and then sell them to someone in the community. That would be the plan. Soledad these Grassroots Efforts operate against a backdrop of a publicprivate renewal effort called russell place of promise, a roughly 800 million project. Greg fischer is the mayor of louisville. Weve had over 100 Community Meetings right now, so people can make sure that theyre designing their new russell as well. And thats been interesting because you can see the identification that people have with their neighborhood. Soledad yet not everything in the project is working. Ss Medicaid Health provider, had planned to build a 100 million headquarters. They stopped construction when they fell short of funds, because the state renegotiated medicaid reimbursement rates. Theyre searching for new financing. Evon smith is president and c. E. O. Of onewest, a Community Development corporation dedicated to bringing more commercial businesses to West Louisville. What was it like to see them take the cranes down . Devastating. For the nine businesses that are located in our buildings just directly across the street, it was a squash of their hope. It was a letdown. It was another promise yet not delivered. But i also see how we see investment coming and the more that we can demonstrate that, i think the more people will feel uplifted. Soledad near the passport site, one project, a 28 million ymca, is nearing completion. Steve tarver, c. E. O. Of the ymca of greater louisville, hopes that the new facility will fill the gaps left by Passport Health. We have a physical therapy full center that will be here. We have a Satellite Office of guilds i club, the National Organization that works with families that are impacted by cancer. We will have services partner, is a huge growing need across all of our landscape, across the country. The amount that were looking at, 15,000. 15,000. And whats that going to be useder to . Soledad amy is director of louisville housing opportunities and microenterprise Community Development loan fund. Theyre partnering with sponsor4success to fill another gap, the lack of loans for individuals and small businesses. Banks dont lend in the communities that may not have a credit score, that the banks are looking for and stuff. But there are so many people that are entrepreneurial and want to own things. Pull those nails out. Soledad marcus harris, a mason and painter, is one of amys favorite customers. So hes mentoring young people to learn carpentry and we provide loans so that he can have the equipment for his flooring, for the dry drywall, whatever it is he needs for the homes that he works on. Soledad another way that West Louisville residents are taking charge of reviving their own community. A spokesman for Passport Health says its still committed to building a new headquarters and Health Campus in West Louisville on the site where they broke ground in march of 2018. Theyre actively searching for a new developer to push that project forward. Nouncer next fact, why congress is looking for money in space . Plus, soledad 75 more people entered the race on the democratic side just kidding. Announcer if threes a crowd, what do you call the growing field of democrats eyeing the white house . Soledad is it a sign, hey, thed geico makes it easy to get help when i need it. With licensed agents available 247, its not just easy. Its havingjeromebettis onyourflagfootballteam easy. Go get em, bus ohhhh [laughing] cmon bus, cmon hey, wait, wait, wait hey man, i got your flag i got your flag, man i got your flag its geico easy. With licensed agents available 24 7. 49 nothing woo why do wrinkles happen at the worst times . Showing up here. Here and even here . With new bounce rapid touch up spray, you can fight wrinkles anywhere. Spray smooth terms, representative peter king of new york joined that list theres a group oning next year saying he is not seeking reelection in 2020. He joins representatives will hurd and pete olson of texas, rob woodall of georgia. Theyre all from districts that House Democrats have targeted over the last few months. Will retirement make it even tougher for the g. O. P. To reclaim a majority in the house . Republican strategist Bruce Mehlman joins us. Always nice to have you. Bruce great to be here. Soledad lets begin there. What is the big picture impact do you think of all of these folks . Im going to go out on a limb and say theyre going to be a handful there are going to be handful more of people not running for reelection and people who are very well known and have lots of power, like a peter king . Bruce the two questions are the explann bruc would you like to the House Minority these days . For some of the folks, like peter king, hesee minority, th really ought to be yes or you need more hobbies. For other folks like will hurd, i think theres a frustration i think theres a frustration that the party that youre currently representing is not the party you thought you signed up for. So theres a sense of maybe in this era he can find other ways to serve as opposed to either picking fights with his own party or carrying the party line that he doesnt believe. Now, as for the impact, yeah, it absolutely makes it harder for the republicans to recapture the house. Incumbents are far more likely to win than nonincumbents. I dont know if its good news, but the good news for the republicans is, almost every republican in a potentially vulnerable seat already got beat in 2018. Soledad thats a weird take on the race on the democratic side no, im kidding. But is it a sign, hey, the democratic field is factor. Its two things. First, the overwhelming conviction by democrats and by the media that donald trump is beatable. In 2020. The other element is, there are two wings in the democratic primary. Theres the 40 some superprogressive wing that has two candidates theyre really excited about. Senator warren and senator sanders. And then theres the majority, the 50 something thats a little bit more moderate, that worries that senator sanders and senator warren cant win. Some of the reason youre seeing Deval Patrick and bloomberg getting in is the belief that joe biden cant possibly stay the frontrunner. Soledad we usually have you on to talk about your Quarterly Report. This time were backing into the Quarterly Report and talking about it last. You talk about p deglobalization. What are your takeaways . Bruce well, were in a deglobalizing world. And populism is one classic example. Writ large, you have voters on the left and on the right, citizens around the world, not just the United States,hey find, unhappy with their perception of the future. And their ability to take care of their families. But as a result, the two decades that began when the United States bestrode the world, wed won the cold war, everyone realized that america had all the answers in 1989 to 1991, we had this hyperglobalization, where the only thing better than globalization is more globalization. We had trade deals and we had corporations become citizens of the world. And over two decades, what we saw is two things. At the lower end, at the developing nations, poverty plummeted and the middle class soared. They really would be. But in the developed countries, starting with the United States, there was this sense that inequality not a sense, inequality did rise. And there was this recognition or concern that globalization was really good for the realizer future felt more imperiled. And were starting to see politicians push back against trade, push back pus back again corporations who say their job is to maximize shareholder value. And expecting more from their leaders. And for businesses in particular, its a new era that theyre waking up to and trying to figure out how they succeed when politicians are no longer suggesting how can we help you serve the world, but are demanding, how are you serving our city . Soledad bruise mehlman, always nice to have you. Thanks for stopping by to see us. Announcer when we come back i asked her what her last words would be. She told me, i can finally put down the knife. Announcer from heartfelt to human rowls. How one man helped thousands share their stories of triumph and tragedy one word at a time. Plus, picture perfect. How google plans to save Cultural Treasures in puerto rico one snapshot at a time. Dad one truth. And thats the goal of the global story telling project called dear world. The striking portraits feature people with messages written on their bodies. Like this. Daughter, alyssa, a of the Parkland School massacre. Others are more ambiguous. Some are meant to make you laugh, like this one. That says, i took the chicken out of the freezer. Dear world is a collection of more than 100,000 photos taken around the world. It started as a passion project for robert foge art and then quickly morphed into something fogert and then quickly morphed into something much better. Robert is with us today. Its great to have you. Explain to me how it really began. When did you first get an inkling of having somebody write on their body and then take a photo of it to send a bigger message . Robert like all good stories, it starts in a bar. In new orleans. Soledad most good stories do start that way, actually. Robert we were in new orleans after the storm, a lot of Young Students right out of college, i was in the americorps. And i was thetart to ask people the right why they love to write why they loved the city and added the element of having the first line written on peoples bodies. The precursor to dear world was actually called dear new orleans. Soledad its takenff. Had me write something on my hand and took a photo of it. How do you know what are the stories and the places that you want to camp out to pull out some of those important stories . Robert our mission is we connect people through their meaningful stories and a lot of the work weve now done in the last 10 years is to cover stories that i think are generational and their in their impact, but do it in a little different way than traditional journalism. I like to think of all of these portraits, truly, as just firstperson profiles in what they write on their body and what they write on their body is a lead to a story only they can tell. Soledad i want to walk through some of the big stories that many people know that youve gone down to cover. We started with parkland. Tell me a l i would take all the bullets for you, on her arm. Robert thats Lori Alhadeff and her daughter is alyssa. We collaborated on this portrait but also a letter she pened to her daughter as a tribute. Often when we work with folks like take control of their own voice and theres Something Interesting about being able to go to lori and say, we cant misquote you, youre going to write it directly on your body. Soledad lets talk about pulse. Those photos are theyre beautiful and theyre just heartbreaking. I wish they could have answered their cell phones. Robert thats omar delgado. Omar was one of the first officers onsite in the club that night. And if you asked him why he wrote that, hell tell you about being in the club for three hours and of course now, breaking news breaks very quickly, and people who passed away that night, their phones started to ring and omar will tell you that the most difficult part of that night was knowing that he was one of the only people to know that they were never going to answer those phones. Soledad you went to india to take some photos and theyre stunning. Robert we decided to do a series with women who have either moved to live out their days where hindu goes to die. They believe hindus go to die. They believe that if they die there, they skip reincarnation and go straight to heaven. Soledad theres a woman who wrote, i can finally put down my knife. Robert yeah. Thats sheila. And i asked her, and often we try and put pointed questions to the portrait and i asked her what her last words would be and through an interpreter, of course, she told me, i can finally put down the knife. She carries a knife around everywhere she goes for protection. Shes looking forward to finally being able to put down the knife. Soledad how many people have been impacted by dear world . Robert thats a great quest who have taken the photographers and then photographs and then through there, some order of magnitude, i think, make the photo even more meaningful. Robert fogarty, so nice to have you. Thanks for joining us. Ront thank you for the opportunity robert thank you for the opportunity. Announcer coming up next, cookies wind in space. Is the i. S. S. The final frontier for business . Soledad now to a weekly feature we like to call, were paying attention. Even if youre too billsy. Its not just the economy here on earth that inout. Theyve also got their eyes set on space. A new bill introduced by a Bipartisan Group of senators on the commerce, science and transportation committee, is called the nasa authorization act of 2019. In addition to extending funding fostheion through 2030, it woul also authorize nasa to boost commercial enterprises to help grow a new space economy. That could be a muchneeded revenue stream for nasa, which is already asking congress for more than 21 billion in funding next year. Nasa announced back in june it was opening the i. S. S. For commercial business. Nasa wants to partner with private industries to test technologies, to manufacture commercial products, to train astronauts for private missions to space. This emerging market is quite popular, a startup wine company in europe sent a dozen bottles to the space station. And a new yorkbased company sent an oven. And Chocolate Cookie dough, to find out how to bake in space. Alhe important questions being answered. Announcer when we return want to enjoy aweinspiring art without going to the museum . Soledad thats to thanks to googles technology, the images allow viewers to see more detail than is even possible with the human eye. Olays new retinol24 faced the competition and rose above. Olays retinol24 complex hydrates better than the 1 retinol. Visibly smoother brighter skin in 24 hours. New olay retinol24. Is skincare from around the wobetter than olay . Ol24. Olay regenerist faced 131 premium products, from 12 countries, over 10 years. Olays hydration was unbeaten every time. Olay, face anything. If youre living with a condition, Kaiser Permanentes integrated care team will help you get through life without missing a beat. Kaiser permanente. Thrive. Soledad finally, lynn manuel is credited with introducing millions worldwide to American Revolutionary history with his pulitzer prizewinning musical hamilton now. Hes hoping to use his star power to introduce people to puerto rican art. He has partnered with google to digitize the islands major art treasures. Digitized more than 350 pieces, some dating back as far as 500 years. Thanks to googles technology, the images allow viewers to see more detail than is even possible with the human eye. Anyone can download the google arts and culture app for free. He hopes people will still travel to puerto rico to visit the museums in person. He is a new yorker, but his mom and dad were both born in puerto rico. Thats it for this edition of matter of fact. Im soledad obrien. Ill see you back here next week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] robert handa hello and welcome to Asian Pacific america. We start with a new local docuar im robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc bay area human trafficking. We talk with the filipino channel journalists behind kept six decades of servitude. Then we profile a bay area filipina actress returning home in the bay area musicals production of gypsy. Cassie grilley tells us about the show and her own life as a theater gypsy. Next, an event that will be going on later today the Community Seva thanksgiving and winter drive. Ive been to this groups events before and was very impressed with the dedication of its leaders and volunteers to help people in need. And we wrap up with information about san joses christmas in the park, which includes the opening of kristi yamaguchis