[music] >> Julian, the investors keep asking me the same question. Is the East Side Tower going to the vote next week? >> It’s going to the vote. I’m driving out to see the block right now before we sign anything. >> Then don’t get sentimental out there. The landlord hands us that block next month and every building on it comes down.
>> 40 floors on the river with Riverline partners on the front. Old brick never kept me up at night. Hold on. That’s Imani Bridges, my house cleaner, walking on the side of the highway. >> All the way out there? Maybe she just lives out that way. >> She clocked out of my house a few hours ago. We’re about 10 miles from my place and she’s still on foot.
>> Julian, we have a vote to prepare for. Don’t get distracted by a stranger on the road. >> She isn’t a stranger. I’m going to find out where she’s going. I’ll call you back later. >> [music] [music] >> There she is, right on time like always.
Let me see what my daughter brought home today. My whole check minus the light bill. Count it twice, Mama. I want to hear the number out loud. $27,000. 27,000, Imani. 14 months ago, we didn’t have $27 in that can. And we’re still 13,000 short of the 40 the landlord wants. Say the rest of it. I need to hear it, too.
End of next month, he takes our 40,000 for this building or he hands it over with the rest of the block. Then those River Line people tear every bit of it down. They are not tearing down this store. Not after 30 years, not Earl’s shop, not any of it if I have anything to say about it. Look at your feet. 14 months of walking that road, 10 miles there and 10 miles back every single day.
You’re going to wear yourself down to nothing. There’s no bus out that far, Mama. And that highway shoulder would kill anybody on a bike. I sold my car for this can. And I’d sell it again. 20 miles a day is just what it costs. This store is worth every single step. Mr. Holloway, what are you doing all the way out here? >> I was looking at property nearby.
I saw you walk in and wanted to say hello. >> Imani, is this the gentleman with the big glass house on the hill? >> Mama, this is my boss, Mr. Holloway. Mr. Holloway, this is my mother, Loretta Bridges. This is her store. >> Please to meet you. What line of work has you looking at property on a street like ours? >> I build things, ma’am.
>> Mhm. >> Mostly I spend my days looking at land. I heard what you said about the road. Let me drive you to work and back home every day, starting tomorrow. >> Are you sure about that? It’s 10 miles each way out here from your house. Why would you want to do that for me? >> Because I watched you walk that road today.
And I can’t let you do it again. When I have a car and the time, please let me do this. >> Then yes. Thank you, Mr. Holloway. I’ll be waiting right out front. >> You don’t know what that means to this family. My daughter’s feet are going to thank you before I can. >> You hung up on me and disappeared for 3 hours.
What on earth happened on that road, Julian? >> I followed her. 10 miles, all the way to the east side. She walked straight onto our block and into a corner store her mother runs. Our block, the one we’re tearing down. That one. They keep a coffee can behind the register. They’ve saved for 14 months to buy their building before the landlord hands it to us.
>> Then they’ll be disappointed. That isn’t River Lines problem and it certainly isn’t yours. >> I want the vote pushed back six weeks. I want to see that block for myself before my name goes on what happens to it. >> Six weeks? The investors will lose their minds. You’re throwing off the whole schedule because of a house cleaner? >> It’s my company and my call.
The woman who cleans my house walks 20 miles a day to save a building I’m about to knock down. I need to understand that. >> Fine. Six weeks. [music] What do I tell the crews in the meantime? >> Let them keep working but keep my name off that block. Nobody from River Line tells those people who I am. >> I have to be honest with you, Mr.
Holloway. This music sounds like a dentist waiting room. I’m giving it a four out of 10. >> A four? I paid somebody to put that playlist together. What does a man have to do to get a seven? >> Fire whoever you paid and let me pick tomorrow. I’ll have you at a seven by Friday. >> Deal. Tomorrow the radio is yours.
>> This is the first day in 14 months I’m not walking this road. It feels strange just sitting down and watching it go by. >> Strange good or strange bad? >> Strange good. With the hours you’re giving me back, I can help my mother in the store in the afternoons. She’s carried it alone for too long. >> Tell me about that store.
How long has your mother had it? >> 30 years. When the plant on our side of town closed, half the block ate because of her. She never turned away one person who walked in hungry. >> There’s something I should probably tell you about yesterday. >> About what? >> About how much I liked meeting your mother. And I want to hear how the rest of your evening went after I left.
>> She told the whole block about you. Earl, the barber next door, wants to know if you’re married and whether you can fix a cooler. >> Tell Earl no on the first one, and I’m willing to learn on the second. >> [music] >> That’s the fourth time you’ve walked through this hallway in an hour, Mr. Holloway. Are you lost in your own house? >> I’ve been working from home all week.
My office is at one end and the coffee is at the other. I’m just passing through. >> The coffee is in the kitchen, >> [music] >> and the kitchen is the other direction. I’ve cleaned it every day for a year. [music] >> Fine. I like talking with you. I’ve been inventing reasons to be in this hallway.
Is that allowed? >> It’s allowed. And since you’re here, do you know what a week of your rides means? Five afternoons behind that counter with my mother instead of five on the side of the highway. >> Five afternoons. The way you say it, it sounds like a fortune. >> To us it is. Every hour I give that store >> [music] >> gets us a little closer to keeping our building.
$12. You paid $12 for a box of cereal. I saw the price on the receipt in your pantry. >> I’ve never looked at a price in my life. Somebody else does the shopping and I just eat whatever shows up. >> My mother would make you walk that box straight back to the shelf. She sells the same cereal for $4 and she still feels bad charging that.
>> Then from now on >> Mhm. >> I buy my cereal from your mother. >> Mhm. Fair warning. She’ll count every penny of your change right in front of you and she will not let you leave until she’s done. A $100 bill for a soda? Mr. Holloway, are you trying to empty my whole register? >> [laughter] >> It’s the smallest I have.
I’m sorry about that. >> Don’t be sorry, be patient. Every penny counts in this store and I don’t short change anybody, not even a rich man with a $100 bill. Soda is a $1.25. That’s $98.75 back to you exact down to the last quarter. >> Please keep the change, Mrs. Bridges. >> Absolutely not. That’s $98 for a soda.
That’s too much and I won’t take it. You will not win this. >> [laughter] >> She once chased a man two blocks down the street to give him back a quarter. >> Then I’ll just have to be more stubborn than she is. It isn’t for you. It’s for the building. Every penny counts. You said so yourself. Let these pennies count, too.
>> Fine. It goes in the can, and it goes toward the building. But I’m writing your name on the chart right next to it. >> [music] [laughter] [music] >> Mr. Holloway? From Riverline? I didn’t expect to see you down here 3 days into >> Finish your measurements and go. And while you’re on this block, you don’t know me.
>> Yes, sir. Understood. We’ll be out of here in 10 minutes. >> How do you know that man? He knew your name. >> I’ve met a lot of crews in my line of work. Um after a while, they all start to look the same. >> Those Riverline men measure the sidewalk every week like the block is already gone. Like we’re already gone, and nobody told us.
>> Maybe it isn’t gone yet. Maybe somebody still has a say in it. >> Earl’s been waiting all week to get you in his chair. Go on before he comes out here and drags you. >> See that picture by the door? 9 10 89. Whole block out on the street for the 4th of July. >> Mhm. >> Loretta’s Grill fed 60 people that day.
It looks like a family reunion. It was, in a way. Everybody on this street has carried everybody else at one time or another. When my shop flooded 12 years back, I lost everything. Loretta fed me for months and never once asked me for a dime. >> She never asked you to pay it back? >> Not once. That’s who she is.
That’s who this block is. If they tear this block down, I’m too old to start over somewhere else. This chair is the only place I know how to be useful. >> What would this block need to survive? If you could ask for anything. >> People who stay. Money comes and goes, son. People who stay are what keep a street alive. >> And speaking of staying, you’ve been here every day this week.
>> That’s a lot of trips for a man who just drives to help home. >> Imani isn’t the help, Mr. Dawson. She’s the reason I keep coming back. >> This was in your open drawer. Whose store is this? >> That was the corner store near where I grew up. The winter my father was out of work, the owner let my mother buy groceries on credit.
>> How long did he carry your family? >> 4 months. I was nine. I watched my mother write our name in his book every week. And I hated feeling that small. That’s why I build things. So I’d never feel that small again. So nobody could ever close a door on me. >> That man’s store did for your family what my mother’s store does for our whole block.
Can I tell you something I’ve never told anybody? This store isn’t only my mother’s dream. She’s tired. She wants to rest. I’m going to run it. >> You’d be wonderful at it. You’d keep that whole street standing. >> That’s the plan, Mr. Holloway. One coffee can at a time. >> I need an answer. Can the tower be built around one corner building? Yellow brick, two stories, right at the north corner.
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