Burnell Cotlon - No Matter What

 

I had a wonderful childhood growing up here in New Orleans, in the Lower Ninth Ward, maybe about 15 minutes from where we're standing. I know everybody think they had the best parents in the world, so did I. I learned a lot from my mother as well as from my father. 

 

My father was an entrepreneur. He had a barber shop in the Trinity area, not too far from here. It's a community hub. Everybody hung out at my dad's barbershop. He supported everybody. One day, my dad was cutting this drug dealer's head and another drug dealer came into the shop, a rival dope dealer. He shot the guy that was in my dad's chair and the guy had died. And the guy told my dad, “You didn't see nothing, you don't know nothing and you better not say anything.” Then he walked out. 

 

Now, my dad could have easily looked out the way and said, “I didn't see nothing,” when the police came, but my dad made a sacrifice. He decided to do the right thing and he wanted to testify. They offered my dad protective custody. He told them no. 

 

So, fast forward, my dad was supposed to go and testify at court. He stepped out the front of his house, and they did a drive by and they killed my dad, the day he was supposed to testify. That devastated me and my family and my entire community. It changed my whole life. I ended up joining the military and I became a military police soldier. I did the whole time in Germany, of all places [unintelligible 00:35:01] [audience laughter]

 

I was over there long enough to learn the language. I did everything that a police officer was supposed to do and not supposed to do. I seen a lot of bad things, but it wasn't all bad. I even helped deliver the baby, so that was fun. It was fun. But something inside of me was still missing. I didn't do the whole time, I ended up coming back home and I went straight back to the Lower Ninth Ward. And it was fun. I found a great job. I was a manager at McDonald's. I bought my first house. I used my VA home loan to buy the house in the Lower Ninth Ward. Since about 2001, I thought I was going to live happily ever after I had 48 wonderful neighbors. Like I said, it's about 2001 and 2005, everybody knows what was coming in 2005. 

 

I saw it on the news. I didn't pay no attention to it. The day before Katrina hit New Orleans, I was at work. And I gave away all of the food at McDonald's. I gave away everything. I actually went home, went to sleep. My mom kept calling my phone. She called me a good 12, 13 times. I ignored all the phone calls. But I finally picked it up. I've never heard my mom sounded like this. I remember exactly what she said. She said, “Son, you was not born for a Hurricane Betsy. So, you don't know nothing about a hurricane. You spent your entire adult life in the military in Germany.” She said, “Please, please come and evacuate with me.” 

 

I didn't want to do it at first. I said, “What about my brother Kevin?” She said, “Kevin is not going to go, but I want you to come.” So, I remember grabbing two pairs of pants and a shirt, and I went and grabbed my mom's. We normally would take six hours to go from here to Fort Polk. It took us 18 hours, because the whole city was evacuating. We ended up going to a shelter in Fort Polk. Once we got there, something I never thought I would see again, they gave me another army cot. [chuckles] So, we all went to sleep and we woke up the next morning, and it was like about maybe a good 65 or 70 of us around this one little bitty, small TV in the shelter. And we watched the city of New Orleans go underwater. 

 

Everybody cried. I stepped away. I went outside and tried to maintain my composure as best I could. FEMA came in and they sent everybody everywhere. I ended up going to New York, and then they sent me to San Antonio, Texas. I still was missing New Orleans. I knew a lot of police officers, so I was able to go back to New Orleans, because they wasn't letting anybody in the Lower Ninth Ward. But I was able to go back in there, and they snuck me in there. 

 

I went where my house used to be. My house was here on its foundation and Katrina took it completely off its foundation and sit it in the middle of the streets. I remember going back to where my bed was. I remember we had pictures. I remember where I had a TV. I don't have any pictures of my grandparents. I know what they look like up here, but having it physically, it was all gone. The smells, it was horrible. 

 

To be honest with you, I cried. I cried because just losing everything and having to start all over, I don't wish that on anybody. But FEMA gave me a FEMA trailer and I was able to rebuild my personal house. I went from having 48 wonderful neighbors. Even still today, I have three neighbors. That's even today, I only have three neighbors in the Lower Ninth Ward about 15 minutes from here. 

 

After I got my personal house together, I drove up and down the Lower Ninth Ward. I noticed we didn't have anything. The closest grocery store that we have in the Lower Ninth Ward, it's Walmart in the next city. I called up all the big box stores. I called Walmart, I called Winn-Dixie, I called Rouses, and I begged them to come to bring a supermarket to the Lower Ninth Ward. I'm embarrassed, because it's the first time I ever heard this, they all told me that they're not coming back because the Lower Ninth Ward is a food desert. 

 

I didn't know what the hell a food desert was. So, I called up the US Department of Agriculture and they said, “That's a lack of grocery store within a three-to-five-mile radius of a certain area.” So, I said, “Well, since they're not going to do anything about it, I am.” I drove up and down the Lower Ninth Ward and I came across this building on Caffin N. Galvez. It was a horrible building. They have no roof up there, didn't have no walls, it was bad. Katrina debris was up to this high. The smells, it was horrible. 

 

So, I'm walking all through this here. And to everybody else, it was just a ragged building. To me, I saw people shopping, I saw a grocery store. I immediately ran to my house, I grabbed Keisha, my other half, that's my wife, and I brought it back to the store and I said, “Keisha, I want to open up a grocery store. We don't have any. I want to do something about it.” She looked around and she said, “Yes.” I was extremely happy. 

 

So, I ran, grabbed my mom. I brought my mom's over and I told her the exact same thing I just told my wife. My mama said, “Hell no.” [audience laughter] I brought a couple of my friends over. They all told me no. But to me, when someone tell me no, that's not a limitation on me, that's a limitation on them. I decided to do it anyway. 

 

So, Keisha and I, we worked every day. We're scrubbing the walls. We got rid of all the Katrina debris, all the mold, the mildew was putting up windows. We just going at it. We worked for about two years straight. Then one day, we showed up and had this big old orange note on the side of the building, and I grabbed it and I opened up the note. It was a code enforcement fine from the city of New Orleans saying, they're going to give me a $17,000 fine, because the building wasn't in compliance. 

 

Needless to say, I was angry. To be honest, I was totally livid. I was pissed off, because I'm trying my best to open up a grocery store. And everywhere else in the city, everybody's partying. Everybody's partying in Bourbon Street. I mean, everybody's good to go, but not us in the Lower Ninth Ward. So, I decided to fight. I went to court. It took us a whole year, and they constantly told us, “No, if you don't pay the fine, we're going to take your building. You don't pay the fine, we're going to take your building.” And I didn't know what to do. 

 

At that time, Mitch Landrieu was the mayor. He had an open forum for anybody to come and talk to him. So, it was the same, this long, long, long line. I was in the back of the line, and they had people up there complaining about all kinds of stupid things. One lady was complaining they had too many Katrina mosquitoes in the air and all kinds of-- [audience laughter] I was angry. I got a real problem. 

 

So, by time I got up to the microphone, I didn't know what the mayor was going to tell me. I didn't know he was going to tell me to shut up or go home or get out or whatever. But I told the mayor, I said, “Sir, my name is Burnell Cotlon. I want to open up the first and only grocery store in the Lower Ninth Ward.” The whole crowd went wild. They cheered me on. Everybody was happy. But I said, “But wait, there's more.” 

 

I went in my front pocket and I pulled out the fine. I said, “Sir, I can't go any further, because you slapped me with a $17,000 fine. How can I finish living out my dream of opening up the first grocery store and have to pay this fine?” They booed him bad. [audience laughter] I felt bad for him. [audience laughter] So, the mayor called me up to him and he said, “Burnell, look, give me a chance. I promise you, I promise you, I will take care of you.” So, he held his hand out, I held my hand out, I said, “Sir, please don't let this be a political promise. Please mean this here.” He said, “Trust me, I will.” 

 

So, I went back to work. I checked that same spot every day for two weeks. Nothing. But it finally came in the mail. Mayor Mitch Landrieu honored his promise. When I opened up that letter and it read, all the fines was forgiven. It was like Mardi Gras, my birthday and Christmas all at the same time. [audience laughter] I was so happy. [audience cheers and applause] 

 

So, fast forward, say about three, maybe another four years before we finally was able to open up, I had invited him over. We had the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was a beautiful day. We had birds chirping, the sun was out, rainbows. It was a picture-perfect day. Everybody showed up. I was blown away. It just touched my heart. 

 

They had this one particular lady though at my grand opening that really blew my mind. An elderly lady, Ms. Williamson. She came in and she had a chair. She sat down right by my front counter. She was there for about three hours. So, I went over to her, I said, “Ma'am, why are you here? You, okay?” She had tears in her eyes. She said, “I've been here, young man, since right after Katrina.” She said she never thought that we'd have a grocery store in the Lower Ninth Ward. She asked, “Was I going to kick her out?” I said, “No, no, you're fine.” So, she stayed there. She was extremely happy. She was extremely happy. 

 

We used to do this here four days a week. The demand is so high. I'm at my store seven days a week, because there's nothing else back there but what we're doing. We also opened up several other businesses in that same strip. Believe it or not, I now have a barbershop. So, I'm hoping – [audience applause] - Thank you. I have a grocery store, a snowball stand, the barbershop and a laundromat all in this one building. So, now, people don't have to catch three, I'm going say it again, three city buses. They can walk to my building just to get some fresh fruits and vegetables. So, wherever you are from, trust me when I say this. Appreciate and value everything, because to go from 48 neighbors down to three, it's bad, that's still today. Like I said, you don't believe me, come to the Lower Ninth Ward, because it's a totally different world, and that's about 15 minutes from here. 

 

It just taught me a lot of very, very important lessons to don't take nothing for granted. Appreciate and value everything that you have, because having to lose everything, I don't wish that on anybody. I also found out what my purpose is. My purpose is service, and that's why I was able to easily go from serving our country to serving my community. I did it with no problem, because like I said, I'm hoping that you all can find your purpose in life, because I found mine and it's wonderful and I'm enjoying this here. I want to tell everybody, thank you all for giving me a chance to tell my story, and thank you for listening.