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Tim Fulton 00:08
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. We are a weekly Columbus centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I’m your host Tim Fulton this week. In anticipation of this fall’s election, the confluence cast is endeavoring to introduce Columbus voters to the 12 Council and two mayoral candidates in their own words. Perhaps no candidate running for city council this November, is better suited to talk about safety, crime and police reform in Columbus than Adrian hood. Person. Henry Green was shot and killed by the Columbus police in 2016. Hood is running for Columbus City Council District Four in what could be considered one of the most hotly contested local races this November. In our interview hood talks about her background, concerns about the increasing cost of living in Columbus and much more. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at the confluence cass.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Columbus City Council candidate Adrienne hood. She’s running for District Four on Cuomo, City Council. Mr. Good, how are you?
Adrienne Hood 01:25
I am doing wonderful, how are you?
Tim Fulton 01:26
I’m doing well. Thank you. Let’s start off just tell us a little bit about yourself and what brings you to your candidacy.
Adrienne Hood 01:32
Yeah. So thank you for having me. For one, I am a Columbus native grew up for the most part in London, okay, family still owns a home that I came home from the hospital. Okay, off the 23rd in Cleveland, my mom moved around a lot. But my grandmother has always been that constant for me. And so for the most part grew up in, in the Linden area, went to went to and graduated from Columbia City Schools. Shortly thereafter, I did I joined active duty Army and did that for three years, did a break of Service came back home, ended up joining the Air Force Reserves. Okay, cuz I got smart. Not to use my mind and not my body per se. Okay. And so I finished my career in the Air Force Reserves, and retired in December of 2020. Actually, okay, I have three children. My blessings, my heartbeats. My motivation for when I want to give up. They have always been at and now I have four beautiful grandchildren, three girls and one boy. I asked God, what did I do to get three girls in this time and age, but they are blessings for me nonetheless. And how I got here was very, from a very tragic entryway into the public eye. That is my son, Henry Green. The fifth was killed by two plainclothes police officers that worked for Columbus, Division of police. And, and navigating, advocating for him. I learned so much that was not okay with me within the police department, but then also understanding and realizing how there are many entities that are connected, that I didn’t realize where and the importance of policy is what really caught my attention. And that is what has brought me to this place in space at this time.
Tim Fulton 04:05
Okay, and that serves as a good transition to the next topic, which is what are the issues that Columbus Columbus is facing?
Adrienne Hood 04:12
who lie lots, okay. You know, Columbus, I I’ve always said that Columbus, to me, has always been slow enough to raise a family fast enough to have things to do, okay, for your family. What I did not understand or realize is that there’s also an underbelly to Columbus, and if you oftentimes, are black, brown or poor, you get to see those things a lot more upfront and personal, which is very unfortunate. Affordable housing. We know that that is something that is striking to everyone, no matter what walk of life. You come from But there are disparaging numbers when it comes to affordable housing when it comes to police accountability. When it comes to mental health, access and services, we tend to we, the black community, black, brown, and poor communities tend to see and feel the brunt of the lack thereof, of those and public education. Like I said, I graduated from Columbus City Schools, things have definitely changed. I worked for the district. Okay, for 11 years, I seen some of that change in much of it has been disheartening to me as far as preparing our children for their tomorrows. And so those are the things that are like, near and dear to me, though there are you know, I’m sure, you know, when you have conversation with many people, you hear different facets of that. But nonetheless, all of those areas to me are interconnected.
Tim Fulton 06:13
Okay. Talk to me about how your campaigns gone up to this point, and how you feel about the new districting system that we’re in?
Adrienne Hood 06:23
Yeah. So as you know, this is the first year that we’re doing districts. So we have nine in the city. Honestly, the only thing that has been district related, was collecting signatures to get on the ballot, right, that has been district specific, outside of that the race really is a city wide race. You know, so you have to get support from, you know, across the city. And so I look forward to the continuing of interacting with, with the community, I do that in so many different capacities. So it that part has, you know, has been good. You know, I am not the endorsed candidate. And so with that comes its, you know, its own challenges, as far as the finances are concerned, as far as, you know, having campaigned literature and, and access to even media and things like that. But I feel like I have been called to be in this space. And so that’s what I continue to keep my focus on.
Tim Fulton 07:41
Okay, talk us through why folks should vote for you as a candidate.
Adrienne Hood 07:47
Many reasons, I am a veteran, right. And so I know the life of a veteran, I know the things that we should have access to, you know, and sometimes we don’t, not necessarily because the resources aren’t there. Sometimes it’s just about not knowing that the resources are available. And so I think that we definitely can do, you know, a better job of communicating those things out. I am a mother. I am a mother who loves passionately. And, you know, living in Columbus, and being a single parent, you know, unfortunately, I did go through a divorce. And it was very challenging for me, but my children kept me going, in the times when I really felt like giving up and that, you know, for what, what am I doing all of this for? And they kept me going. And so understanding the struggles of how and when you’re going to pay bills, because we still have to eat, right, my children still need clothes. And you know, just juggling juggling life, and having those life experiences. I can relate to so many things, you know, drugs at one point in time, devastated many members of my family. And so I know what that feels like, I know what that feels like from a parent child relationship. And then even just as you know, having a family member be drug addicted. And then also having that typically is a segue into the criminal justice system and seeing what you know, that looks like even after you’ve paid your debt to society, so to speak. You are forever since it’s in many of the things as far as access is concerned access to education, access to housing access even to a job yeah, it has a a livable wage, right. And so all of those things, I have seen up close and personal and dealt with personally, to some extent. And because of that, I take all of me into the decision making process when it comes to serving the members of our community. And so I think that I am a good candidate for those reasons and beyond. And I’m just a servant leader. So I’m always going to serve, I will always find a way to be involved in the community. And that is what makes me a good candidate.
Tim Fulton 10:37
Caught it. I just wanted to see if there’s anything else that you wanted to make sure you covered today.
Adrienne Hood 10:42
Yeah. You know, like I said, I think that Columbus has a lot of opportunity and potential, right. And we’re seeing that, in a lot of ways we’re growing, growing girly. You know, I was just at a, an event last week that Shayla favors console woman, Shayla favors did at Columbus State. And the projection in Columbus for growth by 2050, is 3.1 million. And so we have to figure out, you know, where every one is going to go, and what that looks like, respectfully, for the members of our community. And the affordability thing, you know, is that’s troublesome to me, the more I learn, and you know, and understand about it, it’s like, we have to, like, pull the reins in a little bit and figure out, you know, what that’s going to look like, for us, I truly believe that everybody, you know, desires to be safe, regardless as to what area you come from what neighborhood you live in, of course, safety is going to look different, you know, depending on what area you do live in, and equitable access to, you know, site safety, and the services that are connected to that are just as important. And so I think that we are doing a good job, you know, and as far as opportunities are concerned, where we continue to fall short, is who has access to those opportunities. And so we have to do a greater job at that if we want our youth in teen and youth violence to go down. We have to address that, you know, in our in a real way, and not just dump money in organizations that aren’t going to are supposed to provide services to different members of the community. There are a lot of grassroot organizations, that because they don’t have the, the the years in, in certain spaces and the many requirements that you know, are required to get access to the funds, they continue to, you know, not be able to serve as many people as they should. And so I think that we definitely have to, you know, look broader than we are in order for Columbus to be healthy and how,
Tim Fulton 13:21
okay, I end every interview by asking two questions. First of all, what do you think Columbus is doing? Well, and what do you think Columbus is not doing so well.
Adrienne Hood 13:32
And I appreciate that. So again, you know, the opportunities that they’re providing the opportunities that, you know, allow our students to graduate from Columbia schools, get to go to Columbia State, you know, for free, which we, I don’t know about you, but I know I have students that is so you know, that’s, that’s an awesome thing. What we aren’t doing so well, because I can go on and on about, you know, what I see as far as you know, things that, that I see that Columbus is doing well, but again, I feel like we definitely can be doing a better job at affordability. We definitely can be doing a better job around teen violence and the things that we provide for our youth in order to you know, get them engaged and get them prepared for their tomorrow’s. So with, with our young people being our future, one of my girlfriend says actually, they’re not our future there are today. Yeah, and you know, so we have to do the things that we need to in order to prepare them for our tomorrow’s because that touches every single point and point and place of our community. So I think that we definitely can be doing a better job around on that and so, you know, public education, the affordable housing and just accountability all the way around. Yeah. Elected officials or you know and beyond, you know, the leaders in the community. Accountability is necessary for us to do the great things that Columbus is capable of.
Tim Fulton 15:21
Absolutely. Mr. Thank you so much for your time.
Adrienne Hood 15:25
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Tim Fulton 15:37
Thank you for listening to Confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at the confluence cast.com. Please rate subscribe, share this episode of The confluence cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite activist. If you’re interested in sponsoring Confluence cast get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info at the confluence cast.com Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson, our producers Philip Cogley, I’m your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.
