March 14, 2025 • 33 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (03/14) - Mark Thompson fills in for John. Michael Monks comes on the show to talk about the audit into LAHSA. Petros Papadakis comes on the show to talk about the Dodgers being in Tokyo, Japan to take on the Chicago Cubs in a 2 game series next week.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can'f I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Mark Thompson for John Cobel. Today and is Friday. It's
a wet one. We've been on and off rain. There
have been issues, there have been slides. It continues to
be wet, and there continue to be some pretty heavy downpours.
So if you are rolling around today, definitely keep it here.
We'll try to keep you updated on any sort of
emerging areas of weather related problems. One of the problems
(00:29):
we've had. We've got a lot of stuff going on today.
I'll just quickly mentioned. We will get to this p
Diddy stuff, which is bizarre today happening in New York
and the court was shocked, and I'll tell you why.
And we'll get to Donald Trump and the tariffs and
him addressing the media at the Justice Department today, So
(00:49):
all of that still to come. Petros joining us bottom
of the hour. We'll talk about the Dodgers. Tokyo has
become Dodgerville and I am so glad we're starting with this.
We're starting homelessness because it is perhaps the issue in
Los Angeles and it's not only the issue in Los Angeles,
but we dump so much money into addressing this issue,
(01:12):
and the notion that this money just evaporates is disgusting
to all of us who are part of the contribution
pipeline that is the homeless industrial complex. So there are
pushes now for accountability, and there are even pushes to
really essentially reimagine how there'll be a strategy moving forward
(01:34):
to spend that money. Michael Monks is with us FROMKFI News.
So what is being proposed and what might actually happen?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Michael, Well, you nailed it, because there is a lot
of money that is spent in the City of LA
and the County of LA and in a joint operation
known as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority that is
governed by both the city and the county, and things
have not been going well according to the books in
recent years. We just had the second scathing aughdit in
the past three month come out that says there's not
(02:01):
very good oversight, there's not even very good accounting practices here.
We are also not seeing if the contracts we're signing
and throwing all this money towards have any goals stated,
We don't know how to measure success of these things,
because we're just writing checks and paying these third party suppliers,
these third party organizations, who, by the way, have also
(02:22):
come to both City Hall and the county to say
we're not getting paid fast enough. We are having to
borrow money because we can't keep our own lights on
because of how messed up this system is.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
I'm laughing because it's just there's so much money here.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
It's so much money, and market is problem on top
of problem on top of problem, with the very base
problem being the fact that there are seventy five thousand
homeless people in Los Angeles County, more than half of
whom are in the city proper. So LA County on
Tuesday will have a motion brought before them to say,
we're not so sure about this loss of thing anymore.
We're going to consolidate as many of the services as
we can under our own roof here at the county,
(03:00):
basically creating a Department of Homelessness. We've heard rumblings at
La City Hall that they might be moving in that
direction as well. A city council woman, Monica Rodriguez a
big fan of that, but there's nothing on the table
yet to do so, whereas at the County and I
spoke with Supervisor Lindsay Horvathadeo Hill. Are some of those
reports in the news, and then I have a full interview.
I'll run with her on Saturday night on the show
(03:20):
I do at seven o'clock here on KFI, and she
explains why she thinks this is necessary. But to sum
it up for you, they're saying, look, there needs to
be more oversight, there needs to be more accountability. Mark,
you talked about money, and the money we're talking billions, sure,
and more is on the way. Every time you purchase
something in La County. Starting April one, the sales tax
is going up specifically to support this.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Well, we vote these things in because we so want
to stop the bleeding with homelessness. We all see it's
a blight on our city, on our businesses, on our lives,
and so we vote these bond measures, we vote these taxes,
and it is despicable, it's gross that we dump all
this money and direct it this way. And it doesn't
seem to be as you suggested. Money doesn't seem to
(04:04):
be well accounted for. I'm glad they did the audit
and I'm really glad that there may be a huge
overhaul here because clearly the system you can't work around
the edges here. There's something desperately wrong with this system.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Certainly, and if La County creates its own department and
the city moves in a similar direction, then that would
basically end loss A certainly as we know it. It
looks like under the proposal by Supervidvisor Horvath, which has
been co signed by the Chair of the Supervisor's Catherine Barger,
that there would still be some loss of activities, specifically
related to counting the homeless people. They do that every year.
(04:38):
How many do we have? What do the numbers look like?
Are they're turning up or down? And they did trend
down by the way in the report that was given
last year for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
But very very modesty.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yeah, all this money that's being thrown, you've seen a
very modest decrease. And I think because voters approved Measure
A back in November by fifteen points.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
By the way, the vote was fifty seven to forty two.
It wasn't even close that.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Supervis Horvath says, Look, the voters are behind this, The
people of the County want to see success, but we
cannot keep doing it this way because it is not working.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So it's clear they'll be public they'll be public support
for this. I mean, I think everybody's just their patience
has run out on this existing system.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
It's exactly right.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
The patience has run out because it's not just about
getting people housed. That's a problem, you know, for someone
to lose their home and to live on the streets.
But it's also the fact that a lot of the
homeless people that you see in La and around La County,
it's not that they were economically depressed. It's not that
they missed last month's rent, right, It wasn't the cost
of housing that got them there. There are mental health issues,
(05:39):
there are drug addictions, and they become at the very
least annoying, at the worst dangerous.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh my god, yes, I mean the aggressive nature of
a lot of these people who are on whatever.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
I mean, I don't know what, you know, we just had.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
You know, if you spend any time on Neighborhood Watch
or next Door or any of these other kinds of
threads that you end up on, I mean, eighty percent
of them are homeless.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Guy on my property.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Homeless guy rang my bell, homeless guy climbed in through
our window last night. I mean it's and so I
mean when does it The fact that they're unhoused people
is just sort of a footnote maybe to some of
the lawlessness involved. So now they're no longer just homeless,
they're criminal. That's exactly right.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
And how one of the lack of urgency areas that
I've seen just watching council or supervisors meetings is they
don't take into account the impact that has on the
rest of us.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
If you open a business.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
It's hard enough to open a business in La right
to get the permits and have enough money to pay
the rent. It's expensive. But to have a constant stream
of basically crazy people or drug addicted individuals coming in
your space and damaging it, or harassing customers and employees,
or defecating on the sidewalk outside, I mean that is
(06:58):
a problem. And so, yes, there is concern about the
homeless people, But there are other effects that the homeless
people are creating. And that's why I think people's patience
is wearing thin and why you are seeing a pretty
dramatic shift on how this money is going to be operated.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, and you know, I'm glad you mentioned businesses because
businesses are a huge part of this. I mean, businesses
underwrite our lives here in many ways. And so when
you start to push businesses out because they just can't
take it anymore, you who do you call? You call
the cops, you called, you know, paramedics, whatever. But meantime,
there are homeless people, or just one homeless person lying
(07:37):
their face down on the sidewalk in front of your store.
Front of your business. Seven eleven has become like a
it's this gauntlet of aggressive panhandlers is what I call them.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
You know, it's basically like you have to walk through
TSA to go to Walgreens, thank you, Because all of
these businesses need that level of security in order to
maintain a sense of safety. But sometimes the presence of
security guards makes a regular person think what the heck
is going on around here? So you're creating an atmosphere
in LA that does not say, come visit, come spend
(08:08):
money here, because it's all good.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I will say, though, I'd rather have a bunch of
security guards than you know, a bunch of homeless yeah,
because the.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Alternative is much worse.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yes, Now there are even business Improvement districts across LA
and these are kind of a formal thing that the
property owners and business owners pay an additional tax for the fund.
And yes it's the beautify, but it also funds extra security.
Speaker 6 (08:28):
So you see guys on bikes all the time. Now,
they don't have.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Police powers, but those are the ones who will respond
to the businesses. You can't call LAPD and say a
homeless guy's smoking crack outside of my business.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
They're not coming.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Sure, Sure, I mean they've got bigger fish to froactly, Yeah,
I mean it's a big city hang out. For a second,
Michael Monks is here, and this is a radical proposal
that is needed for a situation that requires a radical solution.
Where is all this taxpayer money going that is directed
to addressing LA's homeless issue. LA County Supervisors are set
(09:01):
to vote April first on whether to overhaul all of
this spending and redirect the vast majority of it from
this LA Homeless Services Authority, and they will essentially take
control of this money for greater accountability. We'll talk more
with Michael Monks as we continue. It's a John Covelt show.
Mark Thompson sitting in on KFI AM six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (09:22):
You're listening to John Coblt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Mark Thompson here for John cole Belt. Got the whole
co Belt crew here. Talk to Eric and Deborah and Ray.
Always great to be here at KFI. And as they say,
it's a wet, wet day and there are pockets of
some pretty heavy rains. So do be careful if I
can be just like another one of those people that goes,
you know.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Please drive carefully. Yeah, yeah, thank you, pack your patience.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I got it. Okay. Michael Monks is here.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
We're talking about homelessness in LA and the fact that
the homelessness agency may be going away. This is an
LA County Supervisor proposal that would end that LA Homeless
Services Authority, which is a troubled agency that loses track
of hundreds of millions of dollars and we're really sick
as taxpayers of directing all this money at a situation
(10:15):
that doesn't seem to be improving in any substantial way,
and beyond that, there's no accountability for our money. So
Michael was talking to us about talking to us about
this proposal to essentially eliminate this LA Homeless Services Authority,
as I say, and bring this entire agency and everything
that's regarding homelessness and the funding associated with trying to
(10:38):
stop that bleeding under the supervisor's control.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Isn't that Basically.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
That's exactly what they're trying to do, is that they
say there will be more accountability. And keep in mind,
we just talked before the break that voters approved Measure
A last year by a wide margin, which increases the
sales tax in La County and makes it permanent and
funds directly homeless programs thiscoon of six hundred million to
a billion dollars a year their anticipation. It also has
some affordable housing opponents to prevent people from falling into
(11:03):
homelessness as well and to build more housing. But it's
happening at a time where these audits of homeless programs
are coming out and saying the money that's already being
used are they're not well accounted for, the basic accounting
practices are not good. So these supervisors on Tuesday will
consider this motion and this consolidated County department. Basically what
(11:24):
they're doing is we already have some pieces of this.
We're going to put them all under one roof. We're
going to take some of the stuff that LASA does,
the La Homeless Services Authority and bring that in as well.
LASA itself is also managed by the city, so the
Board of Losses made up by county people and city people.
You take off half of it, and you got to
wonder how much longer can lass elast. Under the motion
(11:46):
being considered on Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors meeting,
they say there will still be a role for some
form of loss. They will administer programs such as the
Greater Los Angeles Continuum of Care.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
You know what they do, and that's what I mean.
I mean, there are so many different buckets of your money.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
It sounds good, but I right.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
But that is the component that does the homeless count,
which we just completed across La County. So it was
supposed to happen back in January, the fires happened, so
they've moved it to February. So they've done the homeless count,
and that's something that they do the city if they
as Council Rodriguez has asked for about a year ago
does the same thing, creates a department of homelessness within
the city. Then, you know, I guess it's good by LASSA.
(12:29):
It looks like under this proposal some loss of staff
would be brought into whatever the county the department is.
Supervisor Lindsay Horbeth told me today that this is not
more government. She says, it will be a smarter way
to deliver the services that voters have clearly demanded. Measure
A includes an element of oversight and accountability. What's been lacking,
(12:50):
according to these audits, is even whether the contracts that
are written have any goals. We write a check, we
give it to an organization, and then we don't know
what they were to do. We learn how to measure
whether it was successful. That's supposed to change, according to
Supervisor Whoorvath, within this new system.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Well, I mean you can't. I don't see how you
defend the current system. It's just not working. And so
Mayor bass As it was just honestly not controlling all
of this, but is a clearly a prominent figure in
all of this. She says, Look, this just creates more bureaucracy.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Lasses.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You know, you just have to tweak LASSA and you know,
build some accountability in I mean, I think she's on
the wrong side of this because we can all see
it's not working. And as you say, with the lack
of accountability, the audits exposing all of this, the reality
is some kind of true overhaul has to happen, and
that's what is proposed here.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
And keep in mind these two audits that happened. One
happened at the end of last year that was ordered
by the county to audit Lassop and it was not
very flattering. It did not create a picture of confidence
in that organization. The one that came out last week
was ordered by the federal court because there's an ongoing
lawsuit involving just the city and some business owners downtown
(14:05):
who said you're not doing enough for homeless. Get this
stuff cleaned up. That's from five years ago. But this
audit was a was part of that, and it was
supposed to include Maribas's signature inside safe program. Those auditors
this time around added a different layer of confusion, saying
we couldn't even get all the information we needed to
paint a clear picture. Wow, because the city, neither the
(14:28):
city nor Lossa could provide it. That's how poor the
accounting practices is.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Right now, This is an inability to provide it as
opposed to an unwillingness to provide it.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Am I right, that's what it sounds like. I mean,
it's not like anyone's obstructing. They're saying not, we just
don't have that information information that you should have.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And we're talking billions. That's absolutely grotesque. I mean, it
really is. We've had enough of this. I mean, yeah,
you know, it does feel like the homeless industrial complex
where you just dump money in and a bunch of
homeless contractors take it. It's just like the Pentagon kind
of gon. They can't tell you where the money went
to either.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
And then it's true when you get budgets this big,
you really need some tight accounting. I mean, you can't
log extra hours here at this radio station without somebody saying, hey,
got some questions about how this went down, or some
questions about what's on the company card, you know.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
I mean, and this is just a radio station.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
You're talking billions of dollars at these homeless organizations. So
when you think about a program like inside Safe even
that spends millions and millions and millions of dollars. And
you see press releases from the mayor like we've housed
twelve people today. Yeah, I mean, it's seventy five thousand
people across La County counted as homeless, forty thousand of
(15:36):
them or more in La City proper. That's not a rate,
that's not a pace that is going to put the
dent into this that's necessary.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right, at best, that's inefficient, and at worst it's fraud.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So it absolutely we don't have the information on how
many of them stay housed, sure, how many of them
are moved into housing that is permanent and then they
get their lives together. They're off drugs, they've got a job,
they're able to pay their own bills.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
That's not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
And like I was mentioning in the last hour in
the last segment, it's not just people who lost their
homes through economic hardship and fell into poverty and homelessness.
You have mentally declined individuals and drug addicted individuals who
will never work again. Oh it will never take care
of themselves again.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's so multifaceted, the homeless crew. I mean, and I
always feel like many of us are just a couple
of personal emergencies away from living in our car, you know,
like I don't feel like I'm a long way from
homelessness ever. Like stuff happens, So as you say, but
it's the stuff happens, and it's then drugs. You can
(16:40):
be addled by any number of things, right of alcohol,
et cetera. And so you begin to see that this
picture of what that homeless crew is represents and reflects
all of those different histories. So it really is a
complicated scene. But look, this doesn't work what we set
up now, So as far as I'm concerned, lossa can.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You know, something new has to happen, thank you, And
this is something that looks new, and you'll see some
familiar faces involved. But this is a strategy that at
least on paper as presented, looks like we hear you,
we know it. Shift has to happen. But more than anything,
you know, we need to see results as a people
in Los Angeles County, and that is what will have
(17:21):
to be measured after some time. Unfortunately, here's a pro tip.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I'd put some personnel around the accounting of it all,
and I think that's important at least tell us where
the money is going. Michael Monks this weekend you'll have
an extended report on.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
This is Linday Rbath is my guest on Michael Monks
Reports Saturday Night, every Saturday night at seven right here
on AM six forty KFI.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Well done, sir.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
When we come back, Patrose is all about Tokyo and
the Dodgers. It's a John coblt How Mark Thompson sitting
in for John on KFI AM six forty. We're live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Just got the word that Deborah's husband is at a
and Deborah will accompany him major award show this evening,
and I'll get to that.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
So I mean that along with.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
News out of Washington, and we will quickly now turn
the attention to Tokyo as we soldier on. And we're
joined by Petros from Petros and Money at AM five
seventy on the Japan City Tokyo that has become Dodgerville.
(18:34):
Hello Petros, Hello Mark, what's cragging?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
How are you? I?
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I'm well.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
No one puts a smile on my face like Petros does. Oh,
that's sweet of you to say, Well, it's true, it's true.
So what do you want to talk about. I'm not
in Tokyo. You don't know, did you? Did you one
of the few? Yeah, they did not go. Did you
campaign to be part of that contingent or No? Absolutely not.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
Even if I thought they wanted to take me, I
I would be against it.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
But then no one wanted to take me.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
So have you been to Tokyo? No?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
No.
Speaker 8 (19:08):
My old my younger brother is married to a Japanese
woman and lived in Japan for some time and speaks
Japanese and his little girl speak Japanese too.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Uh so he's very immersed in the culture.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
I watched some Japanese movies from time to time, and
you know, we all go to sushi or whatever.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
But that's that's about all.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's all I got.
Speaker 8 (19:29):
But yeah, I mean, I'm interested in the place and
and and of course it's a fascinating place and so
very different. And I think a lot of a lot
of Dodger fans and people are shocked that and and
I'm not. But uh, you know, in Japan, you try
to walk into a bar, and it's very common that
they'll say no Americans, No, you can't come in here.
(19:50):
I didn't know that. Oh yeah, that's very very common,
and a few Dodger types are running into that. In fact,
our guy David Vassei, who's out there and and embedded
with the team, and yesterday we had him on the
radio show on five point seventy and he was in
a limo with a couple of Dodger relievers, Tanner Scott
and Blake Trning, and they're all giggling, and I mean
(20:13):
it just sounded like they're having the time of their lives,
like that is the place to be and you ain't there.
But anyway, Dave, Dave, it's like that movie Lost in Translation.
You know, Dave went on some morning show out there.
Then they taped it the night before and they miked
him up and had like a camera on him and
sent him into a restaurant where you know, they no
(20:37):
Americans are able to dine and they are screaming no
American at him, and then they let him in because
they found out he was with the show, and all
the people were staring at him sampling all the different foods.
So Dave is just our reporter. So I mean, he's
our radio reporter. I mean, there's there's video of Keike
Hernandez walking down the street and there's hundreds of people
(20:59):
jogging after him, following him with with with phones and
and he's a he's like a bench player.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
No, that's what I was hearing, which is why I'm
surprised by this kind of no Americans here thing, because
I thought that.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Oh, that's common out there.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I know, I didn't really know.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
That's because there's an animus toward h toward Americans certain
restaurants or something like that.
Speaker 8 (21:19):
There's just a very you know, I mean in most
places you go. I mean like when you go to Greece,
there's Greeks. You know, most people are Greek, you know.
I mean, they don't say you can't come in here
because you're.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
No, no, no.
Speaker 8 (21:33):
They'll actually tackle you on the street and drag you
out of their point. But but you know what I'm
saying is, you know, places are immergent and then that's
the Greek culture. But they have they have a very
inclusive I mean, there's a lot of places where tourists
are welcome. There's just many that they're not. And I
think even less so in Korea when the Dodgers went
last year. But but overall it's a joyous experience. Yeah,
(21:57):
it's an absolute uh, just a huge event like here
in LA and Tokyo is a huge city, right, but
here in Los Angeles, we could have the super Bowl
here and you wouldn't even notice. It is true if
no one told you, let alone you know, all the
major award shows and all the other stupid stuff that
(22:18):
we celebrate. You know, this town absorbs events.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
It's it's built for it.
Speaker 8 (22:23):
Uh, the Olympics maybe a little bit of a different story,
but not really. I mean the town just absorbs it
in that way. Even though Tokyo's a big city and
can do that, I believe. I think the whole town
has caught the blue flu so to speak. Yeah, everybody's
all geeked up. I mean the thing last night was
was crowded. H just the just the open workout was
(22:44):
a zoo, isn't it?
Speaker 6 (22:46):
Why?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I mean they really so can you can you hang
over the break real quick? They got to take a
break in them n Not only Tim ran that trick.
I learned it from Tim. We'll talk more with Petros
about what's going on with the Dodgers and really why
there is this feverish inenthusiasm for the Dodgers. More with
Petros and by the way, if you're headed to Tokyo,
apparently no Americans allowed in certain bars and restaurants. We'll
(23:08):
follow up on that as well. It's the co Belt Show,
Thompson sitting in on KFI AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
This Dodgers Tokyo series. And I guess what I did learn.
I just went to the hallway for a second, and
Oscar who works here with is at KFI, has corroborated
what Petros has said. And I feel kind of embarrassed.
I wasn't aware of the fact that you it's certain
restaurants and bars, and like they're not small in number,
they won't let you in if you're an American. They
(23:41):
just don't want to mess with the cross cultural you know,
different languages whatever. It might not just be Americans, and
I have no ideat Yeah, that's right, I'm sorry, thank you,
You're right. It's they want Japanese only.
Speaker 8 (23:52):
Guy Gene, I believe, is the name of the word
they have for foreigners. Yeah, but that's pretty widespread there, Mark,
I mean, I wouldn't say that on your air. We
love our Japanese listeners of course, and Torrents, which I
live very close to and do a lot of stuff in,
has one of the largest Japanese communities in all of America.
(24:13):
But yes, that is a reality. Massa even got kicked
out of a bar in Australia.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, it was with the Dodgers.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
It's such culture shock because we're so you know, welcoming
of all. You know, there's no bar you can't walk
into here. I mean you might feel awkward in a
couple of places.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
You walk into the California Club dressed like I do
to work, you know, Pat Hayden's sitting there, I might
get kicked.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It is a very it's a very very.
Speaker 8 (24:39):
Big event in Japan right now and then, and simply
really because of one guy. Yes, there's other Japanese players involved.
The center fielder for the Cubs, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the picture
for the Dodgers, Roki Sasaki is a great picture for
the Dodgers, and both those guys are going to start
the games on Tuesday and Wednesday at two in the morning,
(25:00):
five seventy against the Cubs. But it's really, I mean,
the fervor, the passion, the absolute pandemonium is because of
Shoho Tani. And now baseball is big of Japan no
matter what. But Shoo tanis arguably the greatest baseball player
that ever lived. He's in his prime and it's in
the moment, and he just won a World Series for
(25:21):
the La Dodgers. Yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of
a gigantic planet's aligning of hype. Sure in a country
where they love celebrity, so it's gonna be pretty cool.
And he was working through an injury last year, so
he could be arguably better this year. Right, Well, this
year he's gonna pitch too, So I mean, he was
one of the great hitters. He won an MVP and
(25:43):
just hitting yeah, and just being a D eight. So
he's going to pitch to this year at some point,
he's not. They ramped him up as a pitcher and
then paused it because I don't think like is a
very complex way that pitchers go about getting ready for
a baseball season. They do this thing called stretching them out,
you know, making sure that they can pitch you know,
(26:05):
five six, however many innings you're going to pitch as
a starter, And they didn't want to start that process
with him until the season actually.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Started, if that makes any sense, I see.
Speaker 8 (26:15):
Okay, So you know, he started pitching a little bit
in spring training and it got everybody. Twitter paid it
and then they paused it, which I believe was part
of the plan and that'll resume later.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
But yeah, he's going to be doing what he always does.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
Not to mention Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, ti Oscar Hernandez
and Blake Snell, a two time Cy Young Award winner
who they added this year. Not to mention Roki Sasaki,
that young Japanese pitching sensation who at first in spring
training maybe looked like he didn't wasn't going to make
the team, and then all of a sudden he started
(26:51):
pitching in live games and he looked like Superman. So
he's going to start out there. So very exciting things
going on with the AZUL.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So when the uh, this Tokyo enthusiasm as it overflows,
does is baseball the sport there?
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Compare?
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Because the NFL is the sport in America, and baseball
used to be. I wouldn't you say that in the
sixties and seventies, even, I mean if major League baseball.
I think back to some of the Major League figures
and they were like the biggest figures in sports, Willie
Mazes of the world, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8 (27:23):
Yeah, And and baseball maybe to a certain degree, has
made up some traction, especially with the Dodgers and Yankees
playing in the World Series recently. But the number one
sport in the United States of America is pro football,
but they don't have that in Japan. Baseball, Yeah, baseball
is the number one sport, both as a spectator sport
(27:46):
and as a played sport. Baseball was introduced to Japan
in the late nineteenth century, just like us, kind of,
and it quickly gained traction and became a national pastime.
And the np B, which is their their big professional
league is uh is who the Dodgers are going to
play a couple exhibition games against this weekend, and then
(28:10):
they'll do the two games that count, and then they'll
come back and they'll play the Freeway Series against the Angels,
which doesn't count, and then.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
They'll start the season.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
So when does the season start?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Technically Tuesday?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Oh right, okay, rights, it's an odd thing.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Tuesday is three in the morning. Let me let me
ask you it's true. I mean, if they allowing for
the time change, it'll be live on a five seventy.
Let me ask you about Joeyotani real quick. The uh
you know, he's the crown jewel for all the reasons
they you know, have to do with him being an
incredible athlete, just a great draw for the Dodgers. If
(28:55):
I were management, I'd be doing everything to kind of
minimize any chance of injury. I mean, his mere presence
brings in all kinds of ad dollars and all the rest.
Is there a sense of that petros or I mean
in modern day baseball.
Speaker 8 (29:11):
I mean the Dodgers literally have maybe I mean eight
or nine players who are making you know, one hundred
million dollars or something crazy like that. So all of
these guys are very very valuable assets, and there's a
way they go about treating them. But also the guy
as a baseball player, and he wants to play baseball,
so you know, he's a professional and he wants to play,
(29:32):
so he's had these Tommy John.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Surgeries and such.
Speaker 8 (29:36):
But at the same time, you know, you're invested in
him as a baseball player, and he's he's making the
most for you if he's out there playing and winning championships.
But there's a certain real truth to what you're saying.
I mean, you think about just you can't even measure
it what it means to the Dodgers, how much money.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Comes in because of him.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
I mean there are I mean we've all been to
the outlets where a big giant bus of Asian tourists
shows up, uh, and the part of their tour of
America is to go to the outlets, you know, in
the in the desert or or wherever came Rillo, and
they go and spend millions or however many dollars at
(30:22):
these high end outlets, and it's part of a tour. Well,
it's part of a tour to go to the Dodger
Clubhouse store. And literally every person on those buses is
buying like a three hundred and fifty dollars show a
Tani jersey if you want a T shirt jersey.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Do you know how much that is? At Dodger Stadium, Wow,
for one and people are going.
Speaker 8 (30:48):
And they and they're these things are not just selling
they're selling out. I mean they could double the price probably,
so I mean you can't you know, when you get
a sports phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I remember remember Robert Griffin, IID sure.
Speaker 8 (31:03):
Yeah, he became a commentator and all that, but he
won a Heisman Trophy at Baylor, and Baylor before that
was pretty downtrodden in football for some years. And suddenly
they had a new football stadium, they had a new everything,
and somebody asked like, well, what does this twenty year
old guy, what does his existence mean to you monetarily?
(31:24):
And they said, we couldn't even fathom billions. It changed
the whole outlook. Now, one guy doesn't change the whole
outlook of the LA Dodgers, given that it's one of
the biggest brands in sports. But when you add the
most iconic athlete in the world or top three, you know,
maybe that's not a soccer player for sure, and then
you add one of the great franchises in sports, then
(31:46):
you see what's happening.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Remember this guy was an.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Angel for six years. Yeh, I forgot it, and nobody cared.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
He showed up in spring training with the Dodgers last spring,
and everybody acted like it was new. It's like you
could have seen him down the st read for the
last six years in teen p for God's.
Speaker 5 (32:02):
Sake, in our last few seconds. Is that?
Speaker 7 (32:07):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Is that a failure of marketing? Why why wasn't I mean,
he was already he was recognized as a crowd players.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
I mean, he's been an MVP s you know, he
was recognized as the best player in the league.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Why not the crowd though? Why not the why?
Speaker 3 (32:20):
I mean.
Speaker 8 (32:22):
That the way they Dodgers have they didn't invest enough
in the rest of the team to have victory. And
even if they did, I guess. I mean, there's just
such a drastic and dramatic difference between the brand icons
of these professional sports leagues, like your Dallas Cowboys and
your LA Dodgers and your New York Yankees and your
(32:42):
LA Lakers and New York Knicks, you know, as opposed
to your favorite team, the Orlando Magic. It is brand though,
absolutely Conway's or Conway's chosen sportive kings.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
The horse races, Yeah, the real wins. That's on an uptick,
that's with that horse ratio. Sure, Petros Ketchem, Petros and
Money every day on AM five seventy and the game
is Tuesday at three am live on AM five seventy. Petros,
Love you, Thank you for spending a few minutes with us.
(33:18):
Love you too, Love KFI. Have a great day all right,
see you. That's p immt. John back next week. KFI
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Covelt Show podcast.
You can always hear the show live on KFI AM
six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can'f I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Mark Thompson for John Cobel. Today and is Friday. It's
a wet one. We've been on and off rain. There
have been issues, there have been slides. It continues to
be wet, and there continue to be some pretty heavy downpours.
So if you are rolling around today, definitely keep it here.
We'll try to keep you updated on any sort of
emerging areas of weather related problems. One of the problems
(00:29):
we've had. We've got a lot of stuff going on today.
I'll just quickly mentioned. We will get to this p
Diddy stuff, which is bizarre today happening in New York
and the court was shocked, and I'll tell you why.
And we'll get to Donald Trump and the tariffs and
him addressing the media at the Justice Department today, So
(00:49):
all of that still to come. Petros joining us bottom
of the hour. We'll talk about the Dodgers. Tokyo has
become Dodgerville and I am so glad we're starting with this.
We're starting homelessness because it is perhaps the issue in
Los Angeles and it's not only the issue in Los Angeles,
but we dump so much money into addressing this issue,
(01:12):
and the notion that this money just evaporates is disgusting
to all of us who are part of the contribution
pipeline that is the homeless industrial complex. So there are
pushes now for accountability, and there are even pushes to
really essentially reimagine how there'll be a strategy moving forward
(01:34):
to spend that money. Michael Monks is with us FROMKFI News.
So what is being proposed and what might actually happen?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Michael, Well, you nailed it, because there is a lot
of money that is spent in the City of LA
and the County of LA and in a joint operation
known as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority that is
governed by both the city and the county, and things
have not been going well according to the books in
recent years. We just had the second scathing aughdit in
the past three month come out that says there's not
(02:01):
very good oversight, there's not even very good accounting practices here.
We are also not seeing if the contracts we're signing
and throwing all this money towards have any goals stated,
We don't know how to measure success of these things,
because we're just writing checks and paying these third party suppliers,
these third party organizations, who, by the way, have also
(02:22):
come to both City Hall and the county to say
we're not getting paid fast enough. We are having to
borrow money because we can't keep our own lights on
because of how messed up this system is.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
I'm laughing because it's just there's so much money here.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
It's so much money, and market is problem on top
of problem on top of problem, with the very base
problem being the fact that there are seventy five thousand
homeless people in Los Angeles County, more than half of
whom are in the city proper. So LA County on
Tuesday will have a motion brought before them to say,
we're not so sure about this loss of thing anymore.
We're going to consolidate as many of the services as
we can under our own roof here at the county,
(03:00):
basically creating a Department of Homelessness. We've heard rumblings at
La City Hall that they might be moving in that
direction as well. A city council woman, Monica Rodriguez a
big fan of that, but there's nothing on the table
yet to do so, whereas at the County and I
spoke with Supervisor Lindsay Horvathadeo Hill. Are some of those
reports in the news, and then I have a full interview.
I'll run with her on Saturday night on the show
(03:20):
I do at seven o'clock here on KFI, and she
explains why she thinks this is necessary. But to sum
it up for you, they're saying, look, there needs to
be more oversight, there needs to be more accountability. Mark,
you talked about money, and the money we're talking billions, sure,
and more is on the way. Every time you purchase
something in La County. Starting April one, the sales tax
is going up specifically to support this.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Well, we vote these things in because we so want
to stop the bleeding with homelessness. We all see it's
a blight on our city, on our businesses, on our lives,
and so we vote these bond measures, we vote these taxes,
and it is despicable, it's gross that we dump all
this money and direct it this way. And it doesn't
seem to be as you suggested. Money doesn't seem to
(04:04):
be well accounted for. I'm glad they did the audit
and I'm really glad that there may be a huge
overhaul here because clearly the system you can't work around
the edges here. There's something desperately wrong with this system.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Certainly, and if La County creates its own department and
the city moves in a similar direction, then that would
basically end loss A certainly as we know it. It
looks like under the proposal by Supervidvisor Horvath, which has
been co signed by the Chair of the Supervisor's Catherine Barger,
that there would still be some loss of activities, specifically
related to counting the homeless people. They do that every year.
(04:38):
How many do we have? What do the numbers look like?
Are they're turning up or down? And they did trend
down by the way in the report that was given
last year for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
But very very modesty.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yeah, all this money that's being thrown, you've seen a
very modest decrease. And I think because voters approved Measure
A back in November by fifteen points.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
By the way, the vote was fifty seven to forty two.
It wasn't even close that.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Supervis Horvath says, Look, the voters are behind this, The
people of the County want to see success, but we
cannot keep doing it this way because it is not working.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So it's clear they'll be public they'll be public support
for this. I mean, I think everybody's just their patience
has run out on this existing system.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
It's exactly right.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
The patience has run out because it's not just about
getting people housed. That's a problem, you know, for someone
to lose their home and to live on the streets.
But it's also the fact that a lot of the
homeless people that you see in La and around La County,
it's not that they were economically depressed. It's not that
they missed last month's rent, right, It wasn't the cost
of housing that got them there. There are mental health issues,
(05:39):
there are drug addictions, and they become at the very
least annoying, at the worst dangerous.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh my god, yes, I mean the aggressive nature of
a lot of these people who are on whatever.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
I mean, I don't know what, you know, we just had.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
You know, if you spend any time on Neighborhood Watch
or next Door or any of these other kinds of
threads that you end up on, I mean, eighty percent
of them are homeless.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Guy on my property.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Homeless guy rang my bell, homeless guy climbed in through
our window last night. I mean it's and so I
mean when does it The fact that they're unhoused people
is just sort of a footnote maybe to some of
the lawlessness involved. So now they're no longer just homeless,
they're criminal. That's exactly right.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
And how one of the lack of urgency areas that
I've seen just watching council or supervisors meetings is they
don't take into account the impact that has on the
rest of us.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
If you open a business.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
It's hard enough to open a business in La right
to get the permits and have enough money to pay
the rent. It's expensive. But to have a constant stream
of basically crazy people or drug addicted individuals coming in
your space and damaging it, or harassing customers and employees,
or defecating on the sidewalk outside, I mean that is
(06:58):
a problem. And so, yes, there is concern about the
homeless people, But there are other effects that the homeless
people are creating. And that's why I think people's patience
is wearing thin and why you are seeing a pretty
dramatic shift on how this money is going to be operated.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, and you know, I'm glad you mentioned businesses because
businesses are a huge part of this. I mean, businesses
underwrite our lives here in many ways. And so when
you start to push businesses out because they just can't
take it anymore, you who do you call? You call
the cops, you called, you know, paramedics, whatever. But meantime,
there are homeless people, or just one homeless person lying
(07:37):
their face down on the sidewalk in front of your store.
Front of your business. Seven eleven has become like a
it's this gauntlet of aggressive panhandlers is what I call them.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
You know, it's basically like you have to walk through
TSA to go to Walgreens, thank you, Because all of
these businesses need that level of security in order to
maintain a sense of safety. But sometimes the presence of
security guards makes a regular person think what the heck
is going on around here? So you're creating an atmosphere
in LA that does not say, come visit, come spend
(08:08):
money here, because it's all good.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I will say, though, I'd rather have a bunch of
security guards than you know, a bunch of homeless yeah,
because the.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Alternative is much worse.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yes, Now there are even business Improvement districts across LA
and these are kind of a formal thing that the
property owners and business owners pay an additional tax for the fund.
And yes it's the beautify, but it also funds extra security.
Speaker 6 (08:28):
So you see guys on bikes all the time. Now,
they don't have.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Police powers, but those are the ones who will respond
to the businesses. You can't call LAPD and say a
homeless guy's smoking crack outside of my business.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
They're not coming.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Sure, Sure, I mean they've got bigger fish to froactly, Yeah,
I mean it's a big city hang out. For a second,
Michael Monks is here, and this is a radical proposal
that is needed for a situation that requires a radical solution.
Where is all this taxpayer money going that is directed
to addressing LA's homeless issue. LA County Supervisors are set
(09:01):
to vote April first on whether to overhaul all of
this spending and redirect the vast majority of it from
this LA Homeless Services Authority, and they will essentially take
control of this money for greater accountability. We'll talk more
with Michael Monks as we continue. It's a John Covelt show.
Mark Thompson sitting in on KFI AM six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (09:22):
You're listening to John Coblt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Mark Thompson here for John cole Belt. Got the whole
co Belt crew here. Talk to Eric and Deborah and Ray.
Always great to be here at KFI. And as they say,
it's a wet, wet day and there are pockets of
some pretty heavy rains. So do be careful if I
can be just like another one of those people that goes,
you know.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Please drive carefully. Yeah, yeah, thank you, pack your patience.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I got it. Okay. Michael Monks is here.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
We're talking about homelessness in LA and the fact that
the homelessness agency may be going away. This is an
LA County Supervisor proposal that would end that LA Homeless
Services Authority, which is a troubled agency that loses track
of hundreds of millions of dollars and we're really sick
as taxpayers of directing all this money at a situation
(10:15):
that doesn't seem to be improving in any substantial way,
and beyond that, there's no accountability for our money. So
Michael was talking to us about talking to us about
this proposal to essentially eliminate this LA Homeless Services Authority,
as I say, and bring this entire agency and everything
that's regarding homelessness and the funding associated with trying to
(10:38):
stop that bleeding under the supervisor's control.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Isn't that Basically.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
That's exactly what they're trying to do, is that they
say there will be more accountability. And keep in mind,
we just talked before the break that voters approved Measure
A last year by a wide margin, which increases the
sales tax in La County and makes it permanent and
funds directly homeless programs thiscoon of six hundred million to
a billion dollars a year their anticipation. It also has
some affordable housing opponents to prevent people from falling into
(11:03):
homelessness as well and to build more housing. But it's
happening at a time where these audits of homeless programs
are coming out and saying the money that's already being
used are they're not well accounted for, the basic accounting
practices are not good. So these supervisors on Tuesday will
consider this motion and this consolidated County department. Basically what
(11:24):
they're doing is we already have some pieces of this.
We're going to put them all under one roof. We're
going to take some of the stuff that LASA does,
the La Homeless Services Authority and bring that in as well.
LASA itself is also managed by the city, so the
Board of Losses made up by county people and city people.
You take off half of it, and you got to
wonder how much longer can lass elast. Under the motion
(11:46):
being considered on Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors meeting,
they say there will still be a role for some
form of loss. They will administer programs such as the
Greater Los Angeles Continuum of Care.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
You know what they do, and that's what I mean.
I mean, there are so many different buckets of your money.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
It sounds good, but I right.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
But that is the component that does the homeless count,
which we just completed across La County. So it was
supposed to happen back in January, the fires happened, so
they've moved it to February. So they've done the homeless count,
and that's something that they do the city if they
as Council Rodriguez has asked for about a year ago
does the same thing, creates a department of homelessness within
the city. Then, you know, I guess it's good by LASSA.
(12:29):
It looks like under this proposal some loss of staff
would be brought into whatever the county the department is.
Supervisor Lindsay Horbeth told me today that this is not
more government. She says, it will be a smarter way
to deliver the services that voters have clearly demanded. Measure
A includes an element of oversight and accountability. What's been lacking,
(12:50):
according to these audits, is even whether the contracts that
are written have any goals. We write a check, we
give it to an organization, and then we don't know
what they were to do. We learn how to measure
whether it was successful. That's supposed to change, according to
Supervisor Whoorvath, within this new system.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Well, I mean you can't. I don't see how you
defend the current system. It's just not working. And so
Mayor bass As it was just honestly not controlling all
of this, but is a clearly a prominent figure in
all of this. She says, Look, this just creates more bureaucracy.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Lasses.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You know, you just have to tweak LASSA and you know,
build some accountability in I mean, I think she's on
the wrong side of this because we can all see
it's not working. And as you say, with the lack
of accountability, the audits exposing all of this, the reality
is some kind of true overhaul has to happen, and
that's what is proposed here.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
And keep in mind these two audits that happened. One
happened at the end of last year that was ordered
by the county to audit Lassop and it was not
very flattering. It did not create a picture of confidence
in that organization. The one that came out last week
was ordered by the federal court because there's an ongoing
lawsuit involving just the city and some business owners downtown
(14:05):
who said you're not doing enough for homeless. Get this
stuff cleaned up. That's from five years ago. But this
audit was a was part of that, and it was
supposed to include Maribas's signature inside safe program. Those auditors
this time around added a different layer of confusion, saying
we couldn't even get all the information we needed to
paint a clear picture. Wow, because the city, neither the
(14:28):
city nor Lossa could provide it. That's how poor the
accounting practices is.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Right now, This is an inability to provide it as
opposed to an unwillingness to provide it.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Am I right, that's what it sounds like. I mean,
it's not like anyone's obstructing. They're saying not, we just
don't have that information information that you should have.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And we're talking billions. That's absolutely grotesque. I mean, it
really is. We've had enough of this. I mean, yeah,
you know, it does feel like the homeless industrial complex
where you just dump money in and a bunch of
homeless contractors take it. It's just like the Pentagon kind
of gon. They can't tell you where the money went
to either.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
And then it's true when you get budgets this big,
you really need some tight accounting. I mean, you can't
log extra hours here at this radio station without somebody saying, hey,
got some questions about how this went down, or some
questions about what's on the company card, you know.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
I mean, and this is just a radio station.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
You're talking billions of dollars at these homeless organizations. So
when you think about a program like inside Safe even
that spends millions and millions and millions of dollars. And
you see press releases from the mayor like we've housed
twelve people today. Yeah, I mean, it's seventy five thousand
people across La County counted as homeless, forty thousand of
(15:36):
them or more in La City proper. That's not a rate,
that's not a pace that is going to put the
dent into this that's necessary.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right, at best, that's inefficient, and at worst it's fraud.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So it absolutely we don't have the information on how
many of them stay housed, sure, how many of them
are moved into housing that is permanent and then they
get their lives together. They're off drugs, they've got a job,
they're able to pay their own bills.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
That's not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
And like I was mentioning in the last hour in
the last segment, it's not just people who lost their
homes through economic hardship and fell into poverty and homelessness.
You have mentally declined individuals and drug addicted individuals who
will never work again. Oh it will never take care
of themselves again.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's so multifaceted, the homeless crew. I mean, and I
always feel like many of us are just a couple
of personal emergencies away from living in our car, you know,
like I don't feel like I'm a long way from
homelessness ever. Like stuff happens, So as you say, but
it's the stuff happens, and it's then drugs. You can
(16:40):
be addled by any number of things, right of alcohol,
et cetera. And so you begin to see that this
picture of what that homeless crew is represents and reflects
all of those different histories. So it really is a
complicated scene. But look, this doesn't work what we set
up now, So as far as I'm concerned, lossa can.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You know, something new has to happen, thank you, And
this is something that looks new, and you'll see some
familiar faces involved. But this is a strategy that at
least on paper as presented, looks like we hear you,
we know it. Shift has to happen. But more than anything,
you know, we need to see results as a people
in Los Angeles County, and that is what will have
(17:21):
to be measured after some time. Unfortunately, here's a pro tip.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I'd put some personnel around the accounting of it all,
and I think that's important at least tell us where
the money is going. Michael Monks this weekend you'll have
an extended report on.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
This is Linday Rbath is my guest on Michael Monks
Reports Saturday Night, every Saturday night at seven right here
on AM six forty KFI.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Well done, sir.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
When we come back, Patrose is all about Tokyo and
the Dodgers. It's a John coblt How Mark Thompson sitting
in for John on KFI AM six forty. We're live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Just got the word that Deborah's husband is at a
and Deborah will accompany him major award show this evening,
and I'll get to that.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
So I mean that along with.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
News out of Washington, and we will quickly now turn
the attention to Tokyo as we soldier on. And we're
joined by Petros from Petros and Money at AM five
seventy on the Japan City Tokyo that has become Dodgerville.
(18:34):
Hello Petros, Hello Mark, what's cragging?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
How are you? I?
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I'm well.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
No one puts a smile on my face like Petros does. Oh,
that's sweet of you to say, Well, it's true, it's true.
So what do you want to talk about. I'm not
in Tokyo. You don't know, did you? Did you one
of the few? Yeah, they did not go. Did you
campaign to be part of that contingent or No? Absolutely not.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
Even if I thought they wanted to take me, I
I would be against it.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
But then no one wanted to take me.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
So have you been to Tokyo? No?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
No.
Speaker 8 (19:08):
My old my younger brother is married to a Japanese
woman and lived in Japan for some time and speaks
Japanese and his little girl speak Japanese too.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Uh so he's very immersed in the culture.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
I watched some Japanese movies from time to time, and
you know, we all go to sushi or whatever.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
But that's that's about all.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's all I got.
Speaker 8 (19:29):
But yeah, I mean, I'm interested in the place and
and and of course it's a fascinating place and so
very different. And I think a lot of a lot
of Dodger fans and people are shocked that and and
I'm not. But uh, you know, in Japan, you try
to walk into a bar, and it's very common that
they'll say no Americans, No, you can't come in here.
(19:50):
I didn't know that. Oh yeah, that's very very common,
and a few Dodger types are running into that. In fact,
our guy David Vassei, who's out there and and embedded
with the team, and yesterday we had him on the
radio show on five point seventy and he was in
a limo with a couple of Dodger relievers, Tanner Scott
and Blake Trning, and they're all giggling, and I mean
(20:13):
it just sounded like they're having the time of their lives,
like that is the place to be and you ain't there.
But anyway, Dave, Dave, it's like that movie Lost in Translation.
You know, Dave went on some morning show out there.
Then they taped it the night before and they miked
him up and had like a camera on him and
sent him into a restaurant where you know, they no
(20:37):
Americans are able to dine and they are screaming no
American at him, and then they let him in because
they found out he was with the show, and all
the people were staring at him sampling all the different foods.
So Dave is just our reporter. So I mean, he's
our radio reporter. I mean, there's there's video of Keike
Hernandez walking down the street and there's hundreds of people
(20:59):
jogging after him, following him with with with phones and
and he's a he's like a bench player.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
No, that's what I was hearing, which is why I'm
surprised by this kind of no Americans here thing, because
I thought that.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Oh, that's common out there.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I know, I didn't really know.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
That's because there's an animus toward h toward Americans certain
restaurants or something like that.
Speaker 8 (21:19):
There's just a very you know, I mean in most
places you go. I mean like when you go to Greece,
there's Greeks. You know, most people are Greek, you know.
I mean, they don't say you can't come in here
because you're.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
No, no, no.
Speaker 8 (21:33):
They'll actually tackle you on the street and drag you
out of their point. But but you know what I'm
saying is, you know, places are immergent and then that's
the Greek culture. But they have they have a very
inclusive I mean, there's a lot of places where tourists
are welcome. There's just many that they're not. And I
think even less so in Korea when the Dodgers went
last year. But but overall it's a joyous experience. Yeah,
(21:57):
it's an absolute uh, just a huge event like here
in LA and Tokyo is a huge city, right, but
here in Los Angeles, we could have the super Bowl
here and you wouldn't even notice. It is true if
no one told you, let alone you know, all the
major award shows and all the other stupid stuff that
(22:18):
we celebrate. You know, this town absorbs events.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
It's it's built for it.
Speaker 8 (22:23):
Uh, the Olympics maybe a little bit of a different story,
but not really. I mean the town just absorbs it
in that way. Even though Tokyo's a big city and
can do that, I believe. I think the whole town
has caught the blue flu so to speak. Yeah, everybody's
all geeked up. I mean the thing last night was
was crowded. H just the just the open workout was
(22:44):
a zoo, isn't it?
Speaker 6 (22:46):
Why?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I mean they really so can you can you hang
over the break real quick? They got to take a
break in them n Not only Tim ran that trick.
I learned it from Tim. We'll talk more with Petros
about what's going on with the Dodgers and really why
there is this feverish inenthusiasm for the Dodgers. More with
Petros and by the way, if you're headed to Tokyo,
apparently no Americans allowed in certain bars and restaurants. We'll
(23:08):
follow up on that as well. It's the co Belt Show,
Thompson sitting in on KFI AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
This Dodgers Tokyo series. And I guess what I did learn.
I just went to the hallway for a second, and
Oscar who works here with is at KFI, has corroborated
what Petros has said. And I feel kind of embarrassed.
I wasn't aware of the fact that you it's certain
restaurants and bars, and like they're not small in number,
they won't let you in if you're an American. They
(23:41):
just don't want to mess with the cross cultural you know,
different languages whatever. It might not just be Americans, and
I have no ideat Yeah, that's right, I'm sorry, thank you,
You're right. It's they want Japanese only.
Speaker 8 (23:52):
Guy Gene, I believe, is the name of the word
they have for foreigners. Yeah, but that's pretty widespread there, Mark,
I mean, I wouldn't say that on your air. We
love our Japanese listeners of course, and Torrents, which I
live very close to and do a lot of stuff in,
has one of the largest Japanese communities in all of America.
(24:13):
But yes, that is a reality. Massa even got kicked
out of a bar in Australia.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, it was with the Dodgers.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
It's such culture shock because we're so you know, welcoming
of all. You know, there's no bar you can't walk
into here. I mean you might feel awkward in a
couple of places.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
You walk into the California Club dressed like I do
to work, you know, Pat Hayden's sitting there, I might
get kicked.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It is a very it's a very very.
Speaker 8 (24:39):
Big event in Japan right now and then, and simply
really because of one guy. Yes, there's other Japanese players involved.
The center fielder for the Cubs, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the picture
for the Dodgers, Roki Sasaki is a great picture for
the Dodgers, and both those guys are going to start
the games on Tuesday and Wednesday at two in the morning,
(25:00):
five seventy against the Cubs. But it's really, I mean,
the fervor, the passion, the absolute pandemonium is because of
Shoho Tani. And now baseball is big of Japan no
matter what. But Shoo tanis arguably the greatest baseball player
that ever lived. He's in his prime and it's in
the moment, and he just won a World Series for
(25:21):
the La Dodgers. Yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of
a gigantic planet's aligning of hype. Sure in a country
where they love celebrity, so it's gonna be pretty cool.
And he was working through an injury last year, so
he could be arguably better this year. Right, Well, this
year he's gonna pitch too, So I mean, he was
one of the great hitters. He won an MVP and
(25:43):
just hitting yeah, and just being a D eight. So
he's going to pitch to this year at some point,
he's not. They ramped him up as a pitcher and
then paused it because I don't think like is a
very complex way that pitchers go about getting ready for
a baseball season. They do this thing called stretching them out,
you know, making sure that they can pitch you know,
(26:05):
five six, however many innings you're going to pitch as
a starter, And they didn't want to start that process
with him until the season actually.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Started, if that makes any sense, I see.
Speaker 8 (26:15):
Okay, So you know, he started pitching a little bit
in spring training and it got everybody. Twitter paid it
and then they paused it, which I believe was part
of the plan and that'll resume later.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
But yeah, he's going to be doing what he always does.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
Not to mention Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, ti Oscar Hernandez
and Blake Snell, a two time Cy Young Award winner
who they added this year. Not to mention Roki Sasaki,
that young Japanese pitching sensation who at first in spring
training maybe looked like he didn't wasn't going to make
the team, and then all of a sudden he started
(26:51):
pitching in live games and he looked like Superman. So
he's going to start out there. So very exciting things
going on with the AZUL.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So when the uh, this Tokyo enthusiasm as it overflows,
does is baseball the sport there?
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Compare?
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Because the NFL is the sport in America, and baseball
used to be. I wouldn't you say that in the
sixties and seventies, even, I mean if major League baseball.
I think back to some of the Major League figures
and they were like the biggest figures in sports, Willie
Mazes of the world, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8 (27:23):
Yeah, And and baseball maybe to a certain degree, has
made up some traction, especially with the Dodgers and Yankees
playing in the World Series recently. But the number one
sport in the United States of America is pro football,
but they don't have that in Japan. Baseball, Yeah, baseball
is the number one sport, both as a spectator sport
(27:46):
and as a played sport. Baseball was introduced to Japan
in the late nineteenth century, just like us, kind of,
and it quickly gained traction and became a national pastime.
And the np B, which is their their big professional
league is uh is who the Dodgers are going to
play a couple exhibition games against this weekend, and then
(28:10):
they'll do the two games that count, and then they'll
come back and they'll play the Freeway Series against the Angels,
which doesn't count, and then.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
They'll start the season.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
So when does the season start?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Technically Tuesday?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Oh right, okay, rights, it's an odd thing.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Tuesday is three in the morning. Let me let me
ask you it's true. I mean, if they allowing for
the time change, it'll be live on a five seventy.
Let me ask you about Joeyotani real quick. The uh
you know, he's the crown jewel for all the reasons
they you know, have to do with him being an
incredible athlete, just a great draw for the Dodgers. If
(28:55):
I were management, I'd be doing everything to kind of
minimize any chance of injury. I mean, his mere presence
brings in all kinds of ad dollars and all the rest.
Is there a sense of that petros or I mean
in modern day baseball.
Speaker 8 (29:11):
I mean the Dodgers literally have maybe I mean eight
or nine players who are making you know, one hundred
million dollars or something crazy like that. So all of
these guys are very very valuable assets, and there's a
way they go about treating them. But also the guy
as a baseball player, and he wants to play baseball,
so you know, he's a professional and he wants to play,
(29:32):
so he's had these Tommy John.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Surgeries and such.
Speaker 8 (29:36):
But at the same time, you know, you're invested in
him as a baseball player, and he's he's making the
most for you if he's out there playing and winning championships.
But there's a certain real truth to what you're saying.
I mean, you think about just you can't even measure
it what it means to the Dodgers, how much money.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Comes in because of him.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
I mean there are I mean we've all been to
the outlets where a big giant bus of Asian tourists
shows up, uh, and the part of their tour of
America is to go to the outlets, you know, in
the in the desert or or wherever came Rillo, and
they go and spend millions or however many dollars at
(30:22):
these high end outlets, and it's part of a tour. Well,
it's part of a tour to go to the Dodger
Clubhouse store. And literally every person on those buses is
buying like a three hundred and fifty dollars show a
Tani jersey if you want a T shirt jersey.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Do you know how much that is? At Dodger Stadium, Wow,
for one and people are going.
Speaker 8 (30:48):
And they and they're these things are not just selling
they're selling out. I mean they could double the price probably,
so I mean you can't you know, when you get
a sports phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I remember remember Robert Griffin, IID sure.
Speaker 8 (31:03):
Yeah, he became a commentator and all that, but he
won a Heisman Trophy at Baylor, and Baylor before that
was pretty downtrodden in football for some years. And suddenly
they had a new football stadium, they had a new everything,
and somebody asked like, well, what does this twenty year
old guy, what does his existence mean to you monetarily?
(31:24):
And they said, we couldn't even fathom billions. It changed
the whole outlook. Now, one guy doesn't change the whole
outlook of the LA Dodgers, given that it's one of
the biggest brands in sports. But when you add the
most iconic athlete in the world or top three, you know,
maybe that's not a soccer player for sure, and then
you add one of the great franchises in sports, then
(31:46):
you see what's happening.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Remember this guy was an.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Angel for six years. Yeh, I forgot it, and nobody cared.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
He showed up in spring training with the Dodgers last spring,
and everybody acted like it was new. It's like you
could have seen him down the st read for the
last six years in teen p for God's.
Speaker 5 (32:02):
Sake, in our last few seconds. Is that?
Speaker 7 (32:07):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Is that a failure of marketing? Why why wasn't I mean,
he was already he was recognized as a crowd players.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
I mean, he's been an MVP s you know, he
was recognized as the best player in the league.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Why not the crowd though? Why not the why?
Speaker 3 (32:20):
I mean.
Speaker 8 (32:22):
That the way they Dodgers have they didn't invest enough
in the rest of the team to have victory. And
even if they did, I guess. I mean, there's just
such a drastic and dramatic difference between the brand icons
of these professional sports leagues, like your Dallas Cowboys and
your LA Dodgers and your New York Yankees and your
(32:42):
LA Lakers and New York Knicks, you know, as opposed
to your favorite team, the Orlando Magic. It is brand though,
absolutely Conway's or Conway's chosen sportive kings.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
The horse races, Yeah, the real wins. That's on an uptick,
that's with that horse ratio. Sure, Petros Ketchem, Petros and
Money every day on AM five seventy and the game
is Tuesday at three am live on AM five seventy. Petros,
Love you, Thank you for spending a few minutes with us.
(33:18):
Love you too, Love KFI. Have a great day all right,
see you. That's p immt. John back next week. KFI
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Covelt Show podcast.
You can always hear the show live on KFI AM
six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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