Growth & Grace

Announcer 0:00
This is a KUNV Studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:04
The following program is underwritten by Crawford Management Group and Chris Glow, and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and Moore, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. We back. I'm good. I'm good.

Music 0:28
When I was the last time, baby. We

John Edmond 0:35
back and we back and we back and we back and we back and we back and we back.

Music 0:41
When I was the last.

Leaha Crawford 0:44
Okay, y'all, y'all know football season has started, and I'm ready. So you're listening to Growth and Grace. I'm Leah Crawford. Julian is not here with me today, so we wish him well. He had an appointment, so I I gave him the day off. But today, y'all, we are talking about home, community, affordability, and what it means to age with dignity. Dignity. I know Vegas is getting very expensive now, but there are still opportunities for you to live in a clean, comfortable place. You know, age with dignity, and we're going to have a conversation and talk about one of the properties that is here locally on the historic West Side. It is Ruby Duncan Manor that is operated by Operation Life. So today I have joining me in the studio is the only-I mean, he's a Las Vegas legend, y'all, mr. John Edmond. Good morning, John.

John Edmond 1:41
Good morning. How are you?

Leaha Crawford 1:42
I am amazing. Thank you for asking. How are you?

John Edmond 1:45
Hanging in there. Okay.

Leaha Crawford 1:48
Well, you want to know first. Since you are, this is the first time you're on our show. Who is John Edmond? I mean, because you've been here. You're native Las Vegan, right?

John Edmond 1:57
Yeah. Okay, y'all. I

Leaha Crawford 1:58
got another one. I got another. I bring them to you, native Las Vegan. Tell us about it.

John Edmond 2:04
Well, of course, you know, raised in Las Vegas, went to you know West Side Madison.

Leaha Crawford 2:15
Okay. What high school did you go to?

John Edmond 2:17
Roy Martin graduated from Las Vegas High.

Leaha Crawford 2:20
Downtown at the was it downtown at the one

John Edmond 2:23
downtown the one downtown

Leaha Crawford 2:24
okay

John Edmond 2:25
and went on off to college Seattle U okay actually I didn't go off go off to college I got an opportunity to go to work for like Boyne's Aircraft in Seattle, and from there, in going to Seattle, they had this opportunity to go to work for Boyne's Aircraft. So me and like four of my friends, we all went to Seattle. Okay, going out of high school, so I was like 17. Okay, you know, most of all of us was everybody was under 20 years old.

Leaha Crawford 3:08
Okay,

John Edmond 3:09
and you know, got to Seattle and went to work for Bourne's Aircraft, and it really wasn't something that I wanted to do, but I end up doing it, and you know it was in the late '60s, and how I got to college was kind of interesting when I look back at it because it was it was the time when after the Martin Luther King era, and one of the my best friend actually became like sergeant of arms in the Black Panther Party in Seattle, and you know they were demanding opportunities and so forth and so on. And one day a request for someone that they could train at this at this brewery, Rainier Brewery. They wanted to train a person to become like an accountant trainee or something of that nature. So, you know, me and him best friends, and we're both from Vegas, and had grew up together here. And he called me up and asked me would I be interested, and I said, you know, why not?

Leaha Crawford 4:33
And this is during the time when we didn't have cell phones in our hands, so that's you know you had you had to get the call at the house, right? Correct. Call at the house, right? Go ahead.

John Edmond 4:42
So I end up, you know, taking a job. I mean, I end up going for an interview, and they end up hiring me. And actually, what the brewery right near brewery. Right. Okay. So they had a a guy that was. Like over the inventory, and the inventory, he had been there. I don't know, 20, 25 years, an older cat, and you know you got beer products, so you got like Iranian brewery had like a light beer.

Leaha Crawford 5:20
Okay,

John Edmond 5:21
you got a.

Leaha Crawford 5:23
Okay, you

John Edmond 5:24
got 16 ounce, 12 ounce. They don't

Leaha Crawford 5:26
have malt liquor.

John Edmond 5:27
You know, malt liquor. Okay, so they had you know they had various sizes and various types and various you know names of beer, and so they and they brew. You know, it's a brewery, so they brew every day, and so I started out working in the warehouse.

Leaha Crawford 5:48
All right,

John Edmond 5:49
and the guy that had been keeping track and doing the inventory, his inventory numbers was off like 2000 cases. So he just didn't count.

Leaha Crawford 6:02
He either counted too many, or he didn't count enough.

John Edmond 6:05
Well, you know, it's like remember now. You got all kinds of brands. You got a you know 12 ounce brand. You got a 16 ounce brand. You got so a lot of what was happening with him was that he was an older cat, and you know they bring beer in in pallets and so forth and so on. And a lot of it was that although he was off 1000, 2000 cases of this over, but now he's short 2000 cases of this under

Leaha Crawford 6:42
okay

John Edmond 6:42
you know so forth he

Leaha Crawford 6:44
probably sitting like it all add up it just I mean I got 10,000 bottles in here it's just all just 10,000 bottle okay right

John Edmond 6:50
so you know I got 10,000 bottles so you know so yeah so I'm I'm over on this and off on that so no big deal

Leaha Crawford 6:57
right

John Edmond 6:58
but You know, of course, I was young and so forth and so on. And next thing that I started working with him, and before it was over, when they would look at the numbers-two and 3000 cases here, and 500 cases here missing or not counted for. By the time, probably about in about three four months' time, I got it down to where, if a bottle of beer is broken, I know where it's at.

Leaha Crawford 7:38
Oh wow! Okay, all right.

John Edmond 7:40
So,

Leaha Crawford 7:41
because you got that young eye, you know, you you young whippersnay, yeah, you young, you got that eye, okay.

John Edmond 7:46
So you know, it's like they kind of noticed that I seem to have had some smarts about me, and so they end up moving me into the county apartment, and also sending me to schools. Okay. Sent me to school. They paid books. They paid everything. Tuition. Tuition the whole bit. And I worked there while I was going to school. So you know, it turned out to be you know a good thing.

Leaha Crawford 8:18
So then you get back to Vegas because I guess you left there because you came back to Vegas.

John Edmond 8:22
Yeah,

Leaha Crawford 8:22
because I remember the story starting about you dealing. You were you were a dealer.

John Edmond 8:25
Yeah, well, you know, and when you look back, it's like, why did I come back to Vegas?

Leaha Crawford 8:32
Okay,

John Edmond 8:32
because I wouldn't, you know, I I did. I liked Seattle. I kind of, although it rained a lot, but the culture was different from growing up in Vegas. Wouldn't get that hot and all that. And you know, I'm up there now for years, so I got the car, the dog, the house, married, and the whole bit. So you know, I mean, I was very well established, so I hadn't really had any plans on leaving Seattle. But they came, so you know it was one of those situations where by now I about to finish school and finish school actually, and they had, and I was working directly with the chief accountant, so you know I learned every aspect of the accounting procedure for the product, and so they had Bourne's had took a dip and and had begin to lay off a bunch of people, so they had laid off the chief accountant, who I was working directly with for the ever since I had been in the accounting department, and knew every aspect of the the accounting procedures. So, you know, I kind of thought that, well, you know, once things got going again, that they would probably become the accounting manager, you know, because I know all the job, I do all the job, I do all the work in the processing everything and giving it to the chief accountant. So it would be, you know, rightfully the job is mine. So, and of course, you know, vice president of finance, he came in one day and says, you know, we're gonna hire somebody for the chief for

Leaha Crawford 10:35
the chief accountant job.

John Edmond 10:36
No, the county manager job.

Leaha Crawford 10:39
County manager job, okay.

John Edmond 10:41
And we're gonna, you know, bring in this guy from Idaho.

Leaha Crawford 10:46
Okay,

John Edmond 10:47
and we want you to train him.

Speaker 2 10:49
Oh,

John Edmond 10:49
yeah. So, of course, you know, bringing in this guy from Idaho, he wanted me to train him, and I said, under no circumstances am I gonna do that, you know. I don't train nobody to do. So I'm gonna train somebody to do my job, and you expect for me to to go for that.

Leaha Crawford 11:09
Okay.

John Edmond 11:09
And they say, you know, John, you know, you gotta, you know, you're gonna send your school, you know, you you got a good future here, and so forth and so on. But you know, we're gonna bring in somebody that's more experienced. More experienced. What more experience do you need? Anyway, I I told the wife that I'm not I I'm not gonna train on this guy. If they bring him in, I'm gonna quit that same day. And that's

Leaha Crawford 11:39
what happened.

John Edmond 11:40
So I want you to go back to Vegas, go back, stay with your mom. You know, mind you, I'm only like 21 now. Okay, right. Yeah, and because if they do bring the guy in, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna train him.

Leaha Crawford 11:54
Okay.

John Edmond 11:55
They brought him in, introduced it to me, and I left the same day.

Leaha Crawford 12:01
Okay, kept your work. Okay.

John Edmond 12:02
Yeah.

Leaha Crawford 12:03
All right. So you get back to Vegas. So get

John Edmond 12:05
back to Vegas. Now you're 21.

Yeah.

Leaha Crawford 12:07
21. Okay. I'm

John Edmond 12:08
21, and you know, I did have. I didn't take much to get a job. I ended up getting a job at the Frontier Hotel, food and beverage and so forth and same similar type

Leaha Crawford 12:24
job

John Edmond 12:24
you know keeping track of inventory and so on so on, but in the process I had I'm at the Hilton one day and I see this game in the and you know it's like kind of exciting. Dealers were in tuxedo.

Leaha Crawford 12:47
Okay.

John Edmond 12:48
You know, and and back then the game was dealt with paper money instead of chips.

Leaha Crawford 12:55
Okay. You

John Edmond 12:55
see all this paper money on the table. Dealers went tuxedos. like, man, what is that? You know, and I never even heard of baccarat. Yeah.

Leaha Crawford 13:05
All right. Okay.

John Edmond 13:06
And you know, so

Leaha Crawford 13:08
so you know how to play baccarat?

John Edmond 13:10
A little bit.

Leaha Crawford 13:12
A little bit. Okay. A little. He told me he hear that little bit. Okay.

John Edmond 13:16
So I inquired about the game, and it's like, you know, yeah, man. That's a high stake game, but there ain't no brothers gonna get into that. That's way too over over your head, and the town ain't ready for something of that nature. So you can forget it. So you know, it's like okay, I kind of pushed it to the side and. and then one day, I'm taking a friend to this Cedar program. Cedar program was, and they had had passed what they called a decree To allow blacks to become gainfully employed

Leaha Crawford 14:05
in the

John Edmond 14:05
70s.

Leaha Crawford 14:07
Okay,

John Edmond 14:08
and so EOB had a program,

Leaha Crawford 14:11
Economic Opportunity Board.

John Edmond 14:13
Right. Well, they had a contract with Las Vegas School of Dealing, and who was saying, you know, trying to get blacks to become gainfully employed.

Leaha Crawford 14:26
Okay.

John Edmond 14:27
So I already had a job, and didn't already, you know, discouraged me from wanting to be a baccarat dealer. Right. That ain't, you know, ain't no black guy can ever be a backyard dealer, not in Las Vegas,

Leaha Crawford 14:41
right?

John Edmond 14:42
And I happened to go with a friend of mine to the EOB, looking for recruiting interested people that wanted to go into dealing, and that. The guy, one of the one of the instructors, you know, that was giving out trying to get people to go to the dealer school. He looks at me, and he's a young man, you know, says, you know, with just smiling personality or whatever, you could make a great bike ride.

Leaha Crawford 15:25
Oh, okay.

John Edmond 15:27
What made him say that?

Leaha Crawford 15:29
Okay, because you were all in then, right?

John Edmond 15:31
Yeah, you know, it's like, well, he says, yeah, and we got this program here called Singing $50. We'll pay 75, and you have to pay 75 to go to to dealer school, and that did it. I ended up taking the offer and went to Las Vegas dealer school, which was downtown, across from Lady Luck, and probably about. a couple months, the structure says, you know, you know, you you good. Okay, could be you you can be a good bike ride dealer.

Leaha Crawford 16:14
Now, how do you get the job then?

John Edmond 16:18
I end up getting the job by remember I was working at the Frontier. Right. Okay. So you got the Frontier, the Silver Slipper, and the Stardust.

Leaha Crawford 16:29
Okay.

John Edmond 16:30
This I'm on my way to work one morning, and I see a sign says Baccarat opening like April 15 at the Stardust, and let's say this is like maybe 12 or something. Okay. Okay. And you know, and it's like, man, they opened up a baccarat game at the Stardust. I need to go over and see, you know, maybe maybe I could get a job. Okay. They might need somebody, so I go over to Stardust. I walked across the parking lot on my break, and I closed in and I asked to could I speak to someone in the gaming, you know? So the casino manager say, "See, you know, I said I'm a dealer. I can deal. What, 21 craps? He says, "You know, I said, 'I'm a baccarat dealer.

Leaha Crawford 17:30
Oh, okay. And what they say?

John Edmond 17:35
He said, 'Well, you need to go upstairs. Remember, they ain't open the game yet. Okay. So you see, you need to go upstairs and talk to a guy named mr. Frank Rosenthal.

Leaha Crawford 17:47
Okay.

John Edmond 17:48
Okay. So, yeah, and it's the second floor to start us doing the upstairs, and he opened the the door, the elevator door. There's this baccarat table, very similar to how you do it in school.

Leaha Crawford 18:08
Okay. Okay.

John Edmond 18:08
And I go in, ask for mr. Rosenthal. He was standing right there, you know, and I plan to do myself. And it says, you know, I can do baccarat. I've been going to Bacrot school and so forth and so on, and it's like he says, "Okay, get in there and show me what you can do. Okay. So I he tapped the guy out, tapped the guy out. That was like calling the cards. Right. I call like you know about five minutes for calling the cards. It's like okay, yeah. See you know that you know to call the cards and go around on the end on the other end of the table where you pay. You know, and I get on the other end of the table and they put you know if you bet on the bank, your 5% commission is charged. Okay, by being an accountant and knowing numbers, the 5% was nothing. You know, to

Leaha Crawford 19:10
for you to calculate. Yeah,

John Edmond 19:13
and so I go and you know, just like we're doing in school with dealers setting the bets and so forth and so on, but one of the things that was that was kind of fascinating to them, as well as me, is that I had got $101 bills, and I would practice counting out five bills. Give me 100, I give you 520s, okay. And I'd practice that like every day, all the time, counting out five bills, to where I added like down to a science and just. Really neat, and it was like.

Leaha Crawford 20:04
And so when they saw that, they're probably like, "Oh my God! Not only is he neat, he understands the game. Okay.

John Edmond 20:08
Yeah.

Leaha Crawford 20:09
Oh wow! All right, so I'm gonna fast forward because we're because the show is 30 minutes, and I want to make sure that we get Ruby Duncan in, but I'm gonna stick a pin in that because I gotta bring you back, and we're gonna continue from there because we haven't talked about Nucleus Plaza and all the other projects you've worked on, Ruby Duncan Manor is what you're currently working, working in and working on with Operation Life. Ruby Duncan Manor, amazing woman. How long has the manor been there?

John Edmond 20:35
Well, the the manor's been there. It was built in 1987.

Leaha Crawford 20:42
Okay, 1987. And of

John Edmond 20:44
course, you know, for those that don't know, Ruby Duncan Manor was like one of the pioneers in women's rights, and

Leaha Crawford 20:54
Ruby Duncan was the pioneer of women's rights. Yes.

John Edmond 20:56
Yes, and so you know, so she had That idea was to build a senior complex in the historic West Side. That

Leaha Crawford 21:09
and she wasn't a senior then when when when this happened. So no, that was that was 40 some years ago, right?

John Edmond 21:17
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But so you know, she ended up building this complex. It's 30 units, and that it's 22 one bedroom and eight studio.

Leaha Crawford 21:33
Eight studio. Oh wow. Okay. And the project. So it's on historic West Side. It's been there since well, let's say 19 late 80s or early 90s. Early

John Edmond 21:44
90s,

Leaha Crawford 21:45
and it's affordable housing for seniors. Correct. Okay. How can you how can you move into the facility? What is is there eligibility? Do you have to have a certain income to live there?

John Edmond 21:57
Yeah, it's it's what's called a HUD project.

Leaha Crawford 22:02
Okay.

John Edmond 22:02
So you had to qualify to be to move in.

Leaha Crawford 22:06
Okay.

John Edmond 22:07
But you know, the they do have a waiting list. But by being a HUD project, the majority of the rent is subsidized by

Leaha Crawford 22:20
HUD. Okay.

John Edmond 22:21
Of course, you have to be a senior or disability to be able to, you know, to to be able to qualify to be a to be even on the waiting list.

Leaha Crawford 22:33
Got to qualify to get on the waiting list. Okay. All right. And

John Edmond 22:36
the let's say the the rent structure goes from approximately 240 to 300 at the most per month. Being up paying, and then HUD pays the difference.

Leaha Crawford 22:53
And it's so it's more than I mean, it's an apartment. Now, is this considered like independent living?

John Edmond 23:00
This this is independent living.

Leaha Crawford 23:01
It's independent living. Okay, all right. So it's independent living. I guess I guess it is important for seniors to be able, if you can, to live on your own, and you're around a bunch of seniors because it's 30 units.

John Edmond 23:13
Quebec,

Leaha Crawford 23:14
30 units. The residents, because we talked in the beginning, I talked about aging With dignity, what does that mean to you? Because you're also a senior, a seasoned citizen. Yes,

John Edmond 23:27
I'm a senior myself. Senior yourself,

Leaha Crawford 23:29
right?

John Edmond 23:30
So, you know, you're kind of being a senior myself. You know, you kind of know that you want your independence. You know, you want your dignity. You want your independence. You want to be able to move around on your own. And so, you know, what make it good that Ruby chose me to actually take up what she has left leaving off was that she felt that you know I would really be good for the seniors, and her knowing about the kind of projects that I did have been working on in this during West Side, that it just kind of was a natural fit.

Leaha Crawford 24:17
So when we talk about the the property, and I know y'all got a bunch of projects going on over there right now. Can you talk about some of the projects because it's senior living, but you want them to live in a nice place. So, what are some of the projects you have going on now over there?

John Edmond 24:31
You know, of course, you know you got the nucleus plaza. You got no. I

Leaha Crawford 24:36
mean, at Ruby Duncan, what are you doing right now? To are there any improvements going on at the property?

John Edmond 24:41
Yes, yeah. As a matter of fact, there is. Let's

Leaha Crawford 24:44
talk about it.

John Edmond 24:45
So, as because Operation Life is a not-for-profit corporation, so we they able qualify for certain grants to improve and make. Property very user friendly. Okay. So right now we are working on the the building is very nice. The rooms are very nice. Okay. We're working on right now lighting. Okay. Okay. That's

Leaha Crawford 25:22
important.

John Edmond 25:23
Gonna do a whole new upscale landscape.

Leaha Crawford 25:29
Nice.

John Edmond 25:30
We're going to put a casino out.

Leaha Crawford 25:34
Oh, nice.

John Edmond 25:35
Yeah. Okay. Barbecue grill and so forth and so on. Oh. So, yeah, we want to really make it like the spot in the historic West Side for seniors. All

Leaha Crawford 25:46
right, so like I said, well, that's dignity. It

John Edmond 25:48
is only that's the only senior complex in the historic West Side. So why not make it the best?

Leaha Crawford 25:55
Why not make it make it the best? So what the future of Ruby Ducking Manor? So you're going. I mean, because of course it's cost to keep an upper property, right?

John Edmond 26:08
Yes.

Leaha Crawford 26:09
So and I guess now that you, I mean, because you've been there now for about three about three years, almost three years. Yeah, almost two and a half, three years. And from the time you started until now, have you seen a vast improvement in the property?

John Edmond 26:23
Oh yeah, oh yeah. You know, I think one of the things that that I've seemed to find about properties in the historic West Side, of course, you know, it's low income. I guess you call it kind of you know community and mostly Hispanics and you know blacks and Hispanics, but you got you know because Ruby Duncan Valley is probably the

Leaha Crawford 26:55
most diverse, diverse,

John Edmond 26:57
70% yeah, diverse, very diverse, is diverse, yes. So, but having said one of the things that I noticed in my 40 years of working there and turning over property that outside landlords just don't really have the. What can you say? You know they they don't really give the attention to the properties like they should.

Leaha Crawford 27:30
Okay, so I'm I'm gonna stick a pin in that right there because I'm gonna bring you back because we have some more to talk about with Ruby Duncan Manor, but you you you just dropped a bomb because you are here, you are local. You are in this community, and you care about the residents, John. First, I want to thank you for accepting my invitation. I am going to schedule you again because we are at the end of are at the end of the show. But let me do two lightning rounds real quick before we go. So I'm gonna say a word. Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Legacy.

John Edmond 28:00
Probably, you know, it doesn't really one word,

Leaha Crawford 28:05
just one word, first word, only word, legacy.

John Edmond 28:10
I don't know. Okay, it's John Edmond. Yeah, John Edmond. Okay,

Leaha Crawford 28:16
Ruby Duncan.

John Edmond 28:19
Ruby Duncan was a trailblazer blazer that really had the community's heart in mind. Totally,

Leaha Crawford 28:27
I love it. See y'all. He he gonna do it his way. I said one word, he gonna give me he can give me whole phrase. I appreciate it. So like I said, Ruby Duncan Manor. It's about creating dignity so that when you close your door as a senior, you are home. And now that we know we're talking about affordable housing, the property is affordable, and you can contact our office. I will get the information for you. 70238257377023825737. Yes, that's Crawford Management Group. But if you are want more information about the property, I can connect you to the property. All right, y'all. That ends my show for the day, and I'm gonna say go Eagles. Even though I know we play in D.C. Go Eagles, go Eagles, E A G L E S. Until next time, peace and blessings. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai