September 8, 2025 • 56 mins
Stephen welcomes Evan Lovett - friend & creator/host of 'L.A. in a Minute' and the “In a Minute with Evan Lovett” Podcast to talk about the city's crazy history, the rise in crime/homelessness, the future of Los Angeles post LA Fires, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Welcome to Stephen Jay Clueback podcast today. I'm so
happy to have Evan love It here with me. Evan
and I became best friends, and Evan is a modern
day historian of Los Angeles. I've been captivated by all
his work. I watch it all the time. You should, too,
Alien in a minute. It's amazing because you really learn
(00:24):
a lot. Because California is just such a vast place.
And I've talked about this before. It's broken. It's broken,
and we're out of business. We've got to open this
place back up for business. It's not affordable, livable, or workable.
And if we don't disrupt what's going on right now,
(00:46):
the future for a many of you is bleak. It
really is. I've done the due diligence, I've done the homework,
and everyone that's in office right now is compromised. I've
found they pander to each other, and we really need
to take it back because they've got about the customer
of California, because we are all customers. So Evan, let's
(01:07):
talk about la you your vibrant history here. Let's talk
about some things that have happened to you. I know crime.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well first and foremost thank you for being here. I
appreciate that, appreciate what you've accomplished and what you're doing.
And I must take a little umbrage. California is not broken.
I do agree that there are some legislative issues and
some elected officials that may not be optimal and in
(01:39):
fact are having us head in the wrong direction. But
broken would almost insinuate that it can't be fixed. And
I know that with the right leadership in place, it
absolutely can recover.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
That's a better way of saying it. That's a better
way of saying it. I use the word broken because
it's got to get fixed, and you need those fixed broken.
That's true because I fixed most broken of companies and
they were broken. They were broken twenty years. So something
can be broken, but fixable, true, and California is fixable.
There are solutions, but we together need to as customers,
(02:13):
need to stand up and do it together. And it's
that time because we're at that breaking point. And I
think we just saw it with the fires in Los
Angeles and the crime, but we got fires throughout the state.
We have leaders that have never signed the front of
a check. We have leaders that don't understand our public safety,
police and fire our foremost to us. That's what we
(02:36):
pay our text dollars for. First thing is life safety. Correct,
So who that's running for office? Everyone needs to ask
himself out of those that are running for office right
now in this next cycle, who do you trust with
your family and friends, life safety, police and fire.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'll tell you this is that the answer is a
lot different than it was in twenty twenty two for
most voters. And I will agree with this. Listen is
here's the truth. And I will just say this freely
and openly, and this is the truth. I am a
born and bred Democrat Liberal. My dad burned his draft
card and my mom burned her bra That's the kind
(03:14):
of household. I grew up in. Hippies, pot smoking, not me,
me later, But when I was a young age, they
were transparent about it. Great parents loved them. But first
ballot I ever checked Bill Clinton nineteen ninety six, proud
dear friend of mine, every blue box since. However, starting
about twenty seventeen, as I grew older, became a homeowner,
(03:38):
had a child, family, real bills, real obligations. Coincidentally or not,
I started noticing different things in the city of Los
Angeles to allude to some of the points you were making.
Homelessness crime at first a nuisance, then absolutely trouble and
something that as you mentioned affected me first person. You
(04:03):
You were opped, we were robbed, our home was burglarized.
In March, we came along.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Did you call the police?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Did call? The police called nine one one?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
How'd that work out?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So I do want to say this. It was initially
as I was on the call and her neighbors were
over and my son and wife were screaming. You know,
they showed up fifty eight minutes later, but nine one
one did answer the call, which is something that you know, I,
in the fog of war, was not necessarily aware of,
because they put you on hold. They're like is your
(04:34):
life in danger? And then you're like no, and then
they're like, okay, hold please, And then it was fifty
eight minutes before that call came through. And then once
the call did go through to a human being after
that point, they showed up six minutes later, which is
relatively quick. But when you're in that kind of despair
and you're you've just been victimized with the kid, three
dogs too, who are also you know, anybody who's.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
A dog on her nose?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Your kids, You're scared and you're nervous and you don't
know what's going on. So that was a big shot
across the bout. But the thing is, we knew our
neighborhood nice neighbor I'll be honest. We live in Studio City.
It's a fairly nice neighborhood. There'd been break ins, There're
been burglaries all throughout the San Fernando Valley and Sino Tarzana.
(05:14):
I grew up in bel Air right and these things
have been happening more frequently. So we knew crime was
around the corner because we had also seen homeless encampments
in our neighborhood. There were also incidents where a homeless
person broke into three of our well climbed into three
of our backyards, and then housed himself in a garage
(05:37):
of a neighbor. And when that neighbor called nine to
one tried to have him arrested, they wanted him to
the one of the homeowner to sign a permission to arrests,
which I was like, that's crazy that you can't. So
we knew that that was coming. But that is and
I've been more transparent about this reflective of the leadership.
I'm going to speak specifically about many members of the
(05:59):
city Council, in my opinion, where their values. And again
this is coming from a liberal. I was born and
raised to compassion and you know everyone and this is
how I grew up. And the thing is, you get
people in office who have this utopian vision of something
that on paper and in the ether is great, and
(06:24):
it's a great vision, and we want to help everybody,
and we we don't need police. There are alternative methods
of of you know, controlling crime and things like this,
but the reality is you use the analogy of never
having signed the front of a check. You know, I feel,
I don't know if they've never been in this situation,
but at a certain point, certain things just don't work.
(06:46):
And you can't have a functional society without a strong
enforcing body, without there being ramification. And when you had,
you know, a DA that didn't punish criminals, when you
had a have a city council that doesn't really focus
on crime or prioritize policing and things of that nature,
(07:07):
I see the result of that firsthand, and I'm like, well,
this is what happens. You know, homelessness is improving marginally. Sure,
the numbers on crime, it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Quick enough because I've been involved in homelessness and it
you know, there's a supping court ruling that allows cities
to clean up the streets, right, right, we're not enforcing.
So we've elected leaders that are not accountable because they've
never signed the front of a check. Correct, there's no
receipts for our money with two signatures on the check. Correct,
(07:42):
there's no execution. There's no excution of the job that
they're entailed to do. And we don't enforce the laws
because they won't enforcement because they're too weak. They're not woke,
they're weak.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
And just a great comment and just to show that
these aren't platitudes. The city couldn't account for three billion
dollars supposed to be accounting for homeless right, and that's
why you had the big turnover with loss of the
organization that was supposed to run and fix those That's
our money, that is our money, and it wasn't accounted for,
which is simply.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Seusable like well, you know what, let's let's blame every
mayor before mayor Bass then because if there were if
you fix broken, and if you have good accounting principles
in place, because I fixed broken, and if you don't
have receipts that have back up to it, that have
two parties sign off, so there's balance checking balance, you
(08:35):
don't pay the bill and they're just paying bills or
you're just paying our money out. And those principles should
have been in place frankly before Mayor Bass, before Mayor Garcetti,
before Mayor Villa Ricoso. So guess what they're all to blame?
(08:57):
You know, who's really to blame?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Who of us?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Because we let it happen on our watch? So when
are we going to have enough?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Evan, we let it have it happen our watch. But
also it's worth saying that those of you that don't vote,
or anybody not voting is just as if not even
more accountable, because you see the turnout numbers and they're
honestly despicable slash embarrassing. It is what it is. I
wish it would improve. I wish we could get people
more into politics on my show. Whenever I talk about politics,
even from an a political perspective, people are like, oh,
(09:26):
we don't want to hear about politics. No, but you
do want to complain or have a comment, or you
don't get you something so that your vote, your vote
is your improt Do you know.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
What I tell you know what I tell folks when
they want to complain. I said, first of all, do
you have a job. Do you get up early and
stay late? Right? Right? Do you go to work with
the running knows? I do? I did, I still do?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And I said did you vote? And they go no.
It's usually they do have a job somewhat or they
do have a real job, but they don't vote, but
they want to complain. I said, you know what, you
cannot complain. You have no right to complain because you
didn't vote, and you know what your future is at
risk now, So you better get your ass up off
the couch, get involved and vote, because if you don't,
(10:12):
all of your futures are at risk. I've now done
the due diligence. I never even thought about running for office.
I did it because I interviewed every candidate evan and
you know, I've studied hard now eighteen months and.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
There's solutions as.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But I look at the folks, both on the Democrat
and the Republican side, and not one person is signed
the front of a check. Not one person is managed
people or created jobs, not one person other than you know,
Mayor Villa Rogoso for a hot minute managing life safety
of others. And they're all compromised. They're all compromised. No
(10:51):
one's coming to the table cleanly. No one's also fixed broken,
and where we are broken, and it's fixable, but we're
going to really really be in trouble. And I'm sounding
the alarm because I've done the homework and I'm coming
to the table just for everyone's knowledge, California's and deep shit,
(11:15):
we've got structural issues with insurance, affordability, liveability, workability, human
resource law, too many regulations. And you know what, everyone says,
you sound like the Trump of the Democrats. You sound
like a Republican. But you know what, No, I'm a
blue dog Democrat. I am what democrats used to be.
And I'm still the same. Okay, I'm still the same, right, Okay,
(11:38):
we still want in my world. I want seeing in
humane immigration and a pathway to citizenship, and we do
things with love and compassion. But you know what, I'm
going to be unapologic, unapologetically authentic, Evan, I'm not going
to mix words because I'm going to ride or die.
So all your futures are safe, because if I don't
(12:02):
say these things and we don't get this voter turnout
with the youth vote, the younger vote eighteen to thirty five,
it's your future you're all gambling with right now. You
know what I'm going to be. Okay, you're not nine folks,
nine one one. When I grew up, it was Network.
(12:25):
Remember the movie Network Network was go out your window
and say I can't, I can't take it anymore and
bang your pots and pants.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's an old movie.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And there's another movie a few good ben Yes, Jack Nicholson,
what's that famous line you can't handle the truth, the truth? Well,
this is that moment in time you can't handle the truth.
This is the truth, folks. I don't need to pontificate,
and I love to hear your opinions on how you'd
(12:57):
fix How would you fix well, that's your homelessness. No, No,
my job is to listen to everyone and do it together. See,
I'm not dictatorial, Okay. I believe we all need to
work together to solve what we want, what do we want?
And then how do we achieve it where we get
equally greater value evan.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
True safety, cleanliness. We want to put a meal on
the table for our family. We want to be able
to have our kids walk to the park on the
corner without worrying about them like I didn't. You're able
to walk your dog without carrying pepper spray. Yeah, things
like that. Yeah, So I think, And that's one thing
I want to say is I think that what people
didn't realize for a good decade plus now is that
(13:40):
you can be have a little bit of overlap in
your ven diagram of values or of politics, where before
it was if that person's still you see, if that
person's a Republican, well I don't even want to have
lunch with them. I'm not going to have a compent.
Don't even put me on that text thread. People have
told me like, and I'm like, wait, you guys want
the scene things, you're going about it a different way.
(14:02):
Or Democrats like, oh, they're stupid, they're ignorant. They're not
all like that, And people want the same things. And
what I see is that there are common sense, logical
in the middle solutions. But right now, what takes all
the oxygen in the room. Are these polarizing opinions that
allowed people to ten percent on both sides?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
No, it's actually on both sides. Seventy of us, seventy
percent of us believe you've done I've done.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I've done that.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
The survey of all of us in California, and sixty
eight to seventy percent of us want the same thing. Well,
that's super majority, folks. Then we just don't have a voice.
Let's have the voice and have the bravado. I mean,
I've been called a Republican. I've been a Democrat my
whole life. I mean, I don't care. I'm the Trump
of the Democratic Party. Okay, so what at least I've
(14:48):
got morals, ethics, values, and I pay my contractors and
I serve he wants to be served. So we're different.
We both have a big personality. But I worry about
your future in your kids because you don't have the
aspiration I had when I grew up here.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Well, I'll tell you this, Look, I always remain optimistic,
and I know that. You know, with the narrative of
things are broken. Look, there's definitely some damage, and we
especially since COVID, certain things have been exacerbated. But the
fact is that more people that I talk to are
sort of coming to that middle that I realized before,
(15:28):
where it's just it's logic, it's common good, right. It's
not okay to happen on your residential street corner. It's
not okay to have downtown Los Angeles smelling like you're
in when you get out of your car. It's not
okay that I drive on Fairfax yesterday coming home from
the from the Grove and from Fairfax at the original
(15:50):
Farmer's Market to a little bit beyond Melrose, it looks
honestly like the third world country. And it pains me
to say that because you got canters in there, You've
got Diamond Bakery, and there you have some legend of
the hundreds was in their street culture. Everything was right there,
Fairfax High School, Anthony Keen, it's right out Jilli Pepper's
LA History on this one stretch. And you drive there
and you're sad and despund it and despair and how
(16:12):
did it get like that? And that's not the only
area in LA. So things got like that And people
are starting to realize that g maybe these pie in
the sky unrealistic utopian visions that I had under the
cloud of COVID weren't working because it's led to this.
So I think that in twenty twenty six, specifically germane
(16:33):
to the elections, you're going to see a swing of
the pendulum back towards common sense and logic.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
We have to, yeah, so we have to. And I'm
speaking for LA and that's what people are starting to
talk about, that they've got to get out and vote
and make it happen. Otherwise it's gonna get worse, right,
And that's my prediction, and I hope it doesn't. You know,
(17:03):
I wish Rick Caruso would be mayor right now. That
would be awesome. I went to high school with him.
He's a good guy.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
He was on my podcast this week, so he's a
good guy.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, And you know, look, he's really an independent. Rick's not,
you know, he's a registered and independent. He's given to
so many pro life candidates in the past. He can
never get past that athletic, proud Catholic great. I love it,
Tanan cath great, super fantastic, and he's uh, he'd be
(17:33):
a good face for Los Angeles. And you know, but
you have to hear what the twelve other socialists?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You know, the city county, City Council's interesting makeup, And
again I think that is a reflection of during COVID,
people were clouded in more ways than one, and that
twenty twenty two election really put us behind a ball
on a number of things. In twenty twenty four, the
reps that were.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Like, are we going to recover for FIFA? The Super
Bowl and the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And you don't know, we talks about the NBA All
Star Game. I just put that together. Tose you actually
got the NBA All Star Game when it's that World
Cup February next year. Okay, the women US Women's Tennis Open,
uh said? The World Cup, the super Bowl and the
Olympics and those that's just sports. That that's just it's
not sports. No city in world history has had three
events in that caliber and back to back back.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So how do you do that? We have an airport
that looks like a war zone, which is the necktie
of our embarkation and debarkation. You know, that's where people
come into and go out of the first thing people
see is our airport, and there there's no life safety
really to speak of. There's no music, there's no beautiful walls,
(18:45):
there's no art there lacking. Restaurants are terrible. You're mister
restaurant all over the place. We'll talk about that in
a minute. But you don't have the collegiality, the curb
side manner welcome.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It's tough. The horse shoe that you know that comes
historically from two things, And you're right. I actually did
of an entire podcast episode on is Lax the worst
airport in the United States, at least of a major city,
And I kind of think it is. But that does
come from the fact that it wasn't meant to be
our first airport. It's mines Field. It was just runway
strips with alfalfa and sheep, while Glendale Central Air Terminal
(19:21):
was the main and first airport of the United States.
And then when they did design in the fifties, they
thought that horseshoe design and the theme building was futuristic
and architecturally appealing and beautiful. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't,
but it kind of pinned in that. So what we true,
but what we need to do is a complete overhaul,
(19:42):
and that starts with mass transit. And I'm not exactly
the biggest mass transit advocate. I'm an advocate in the
sense that we need it, but I'm also realistic in
the sense that the city of this size to implement
what would really be efficient trains, buses, monoails, perhaps support.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Beijing or Shanghai. Of course, Okay, then why don't tell
me it's not possible.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
John is a different story, and I think we know
that first of all, and cities, but La and again
I will always go back to this was born out
of car culture. What makes Los Angeles great, yep, is
because we were the first city not just to embrace
the freeways, but to plan our city, and our city
grew around the freeways and driving and the car. So
now we're putting in the trains and the buses and
(20:31):
all this kind of stuff on top of it. And yes,
before somebody calls me out, we were also the mass
transit capital of the world in the nineteen twenties going
into the nineteen thirties. But those of you that have
seen who framed Roger Rabbit, though not exactly true historically,
it is a good indication of what happened because again
we're the hub of the automobile industry. Tire factory. The
Citadel off the five used to be a tire factory,
(20:53):
Goodyear Aerospace. Everything revolved around the car, especially when freeways
came in, so we undid all that work. And then
now we have the freeways in the cars and car
culture ingrained. Now we're trying to put trains on top
of it. So it's tough, and that's what would really
help LAX. They're doing that people mover thing. It's not complete.
But to your point, why is it not happening Because
(21:14):
there is so much red tape, because there is so
much bureaucracy, because there is so much legislative infighting that
a good solution in this day and age is neither
efficient nor possible with the current legislative legislators and legislative
red tape.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So they don't have experience. I mean, you want to
look at Las Vegas. They built the Monoro, failed twice.
They never connected it to the airport. What a joke. Yeah, yeah,
well it's not weird because you had politicians doing it,
not experienced business people. I mean, same thing, But we
have put we've got to take a really hard look
at who we're putting in charge, right, and you know,
(21:54):
we have. They're doing a really good job. Lori's doing
Mayor Lurry up in San Francisco now and cleaning up
San francisc Club. Spent a lot of time up there,
and I'm seeing the difference.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Do you want a true story? Is this? I was
in San Francisco back when I was in the private sector.
I was in advertising floor, but I was up there
for a trade show. It's about two thousand and nine,
twenty ten, and it's a true story. We were in
front of what was called the Cliff Hotel, the Cliff
Hotel Cliff, Yeah, the Cliff four seasons and no joke.
You know that was San Francisco in its nader. Let's
(22:29):
say we were literally stepping over homeless people to get
to the next place. And my buddy was in town
from Florida. Jeff shout out, Jeff roach. He says, Ev,
you better be careful. He says, LA is going to
be like this in ten years. And I said, no,
that can't happen. LA is not gonna be a crime here,
homeless there. You don't want to want. San Francisco is
(22:50):
such a beautiful, amazing, walkable, incredible city, and at that
time it was well, hail a cab. This is before uber.
You know, you get a cab because you could even
walk around San Francisco because if it wasn't the homeless,
it was a crime. And he says, LA is going
to be and I was like, get out of here
and lo and behold. LA ended up going that direction.
(23:11):
But San Francisco was the first to course correct and
like you see, and the narrative becomes, now I'm here
San Francis.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
We've got a business leader. That was correct. You got
a business leader elected mayor and he's getting shit done
and he's embracing it, rolling up his sleeves and doing
the work. He's loving it. Bravo, Mayor Laurie. No, he is.
He's enjoying it. He's doing a good job. And you
can change it really quick because I've fixed broken and
(23:39):
you can do it as long as you're all in.
You got to lean all into it. Take Away, What's
best Burger in California?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Me? Yes, that was a quick pivot. I was it
ready for that. What's the best? Listen in?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
You do this for a living, but maybe you're gonna
see how somebody else can do it too.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's the easy answer. To tell you the truth, and
it's a great satisfying answer. I love Apple Pam because
of its history. Nineteen forty seven West Side Classic. I
went to UCLA Father's office, ushered in the new era
of Hamburger's, shout out to Chef Sun Young and look
(24:19):
if for my money. I don't know if this is
the best burger, but my favorite burger. If it's a
special occasion, any burger's a lot, I'm gonna go to
Tommy's and get a double chili cheese burger with chili
cheese fries. That's my favorite burger in California. Also a
great story rated Yeah. Rampart, Yeah, absolutely, Beverly Rampart, Tommy
Kolax nineteen forty six just started with eight stools in
(24:42):
a tiny, little little shack.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Whomali though, Oh yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I just had that for the first time about a
couple well a couple of years ago. I say the
first time, because I grew up. Why would I pass
up a double chili cheese burger. You know, I was like, it's.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Incredible, Tomorrow's amazing. Yeah, that's good, all right, just checking
it out. What is the most amazing fact about Los
Angeles that people don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Oh no, there's so many no ones. I listen, I've
done eighteen hundred different episodes in three and a half years.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
LA. In a minute, I'm gonna ask history culture. Okay,
is it Chandler, Lancersham, Chatsworth. Who who of these great Angelinos?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah? Yeah, I've called Harrison gray otis probably the most impactful.
He ran the LA Times and now the LA Times
again speaking of Michelle of its former self, but the
La Times at one point not only was the most
powerful voice on the West Coast, but for generations could
drive policy. The LA Times is the reason why we
have the La Aqueduct, because Harrison gray Otis used his
(25:52):
bully pulpit to make things happen. And in the development
of Los Angeles from eighteen eighty when he took over
the paper and LA had twenty thousand people to the
time he passed away around nineteen twenty and it was
over a million. He spearheaded a lot of that growth.
So all these Nate Chandler and Chandler took the baton
from him, and Chandler is extremely impactful because he's behind
all these you know, Hollywood Bowl. I want to say
(26:14):
the Rose Bowl, but a lot of the great landmarks
of Los Angeles as well. You could say Mulholland because
he's a reason Water came in, but he has a
complicated legacy. But I want to go back to the
fact thing, because there's two that I enjoy. One the
Burbank Airport, the entire Burbank Airport, which is getting a
big redo right now, which is getting a big overhaul.
It was camouflaged during World War Two, and what I
(26:37):
mean by that is thinking the size that it's Again
it's not a quote major airport, but it is a
major airport. And more importantly, it housed Lockheed, which was
absolutely integral in the World War Two in the war effort,
so it became a strategic target.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Do people know that we had McDonald Douglas, Lockheed, Boeing,
Raytheon Rocket Dyne.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Aerospace, Capitol, world El Segundo. But a lot of that
was in Burbank because the training was out there the
Curtis Technical Institute. So became a perceived target from you know,
access planes and spies. So they had to camouflage airport.
What happens to be right down the street from Burbank
were the Disney studios. So you had these great artists
(27:20):
and thinkers and creative animators that were able to work
with the logical, military and engineering mines at Bourban Airport.
So they were able to cover the entire airport with
canvas and tarp and not just okay, that's what does
that do, but they actually built like cardboard and paper
mache cars, homes, people that people underneath this canvas and
(27:43):
tarp fifty feet there were moving around in normal daily
activities to make it look as if any spy plane
was above. Oh, this is just more rolling hills in
the San Fernando Valley, which wasn't fully developed at the time.
And to see these pictures where you're like, this is
the Burbank Airport in nineteen forty, this is the Burke Airport.
When it's camouflage, You're like, holy shit, it looks like
(28:04):
the northern San Fernando Valley, just bucolic rolling hills everywhere
you could see. And one I want to throw you
because it kind of ties today and yesterday together. Have
you ever heard of Richard Katz, former Assemblymen? Yeah, okay,
nineteen eighty nine, Richard Katz had the idea to turn
the La River into a freeway. And this made it
(28:24):
all the way up to the California State Assembly, but
it was greenlit all the way up because what he
was going to do was keep the river, but make
lanes on either side from the west San Fernando Valley
out to Long Beach for high occupancy vehicles, whether that
was buses or just carpool lanes, and the La River
(28:45):
was going to because traffic, traffic has been the story
of Los Angeles since the freeways were built. When they
when the four or five opened, by the way, four
or five freeway open within twelve minutes, the first single
art happened. That's how fast traffic happens last night. But
look at the story. But hold on, So he was
gonna make the La We're a freeway. And can you
imagine now, I mean with what we have the movement
(29:05):
to naturalize the La River and it has you know
in certain areas, that's a whole project that's gone wayward
because you go one strip and it's beautiful one strip.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
How about how about Caltrans? You know, we pay gas
tax to Caltrans to take care of our roads. Why
is Southern California filthy and northern California clean. The freeways
are absolutely spotless in northern California. Spotless, pristine, gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
It's true, it's true.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
But let's speak. I got a question.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Here's what I thought you were gonna say about Caltrans.
Why is it going to take four years to repave
two lanes on the four oh five. That's what I
want Anybody who's driving on the four h five right now,
you want to know this not every weekend, but many
weekends over the next four years. And you've seen it
over some recent year weekends. Is it's down to three
lanes and this is the highest trafficked freeway in the
(29:56):
United States, which understood needs improvements, But why is it
going to take four years? They're not renovating the whole freeway?
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Sorry, go on, because you have leaders in Sacramento that
have never built anything. And the longer the unions can
drag it out, the more they all get paid. And
it's our money. I call bullshit on all of them
that come on, just bullshit. Why don't we work three
shifts and get it done. I mean they'd say they
(30:24):
want three shifts, but they don't want three shifts because
they want a Lengthen you know, it's part of.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
The regulations, right, is where that comes in.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
There's so many we're regulated to death. Regulations are good
to keep bad actors out. Too many regulations that beat
good business from doing good business. It's really something no,
And I'm a regulator. I was a regulator, I was
a judge. I come with experience. I fixed broken business.
You know there are solutions here. We need good business
(30:54):
leaders to get involved and solve some of these problems.
But you know, most business leaders wouldn't do this because
you know, you get you put yourself way out there
and it's unforgiving. But you just have to be able
to disrupt and not get sucked into the vortex of pandering.
And it's not a likability contest. It's about a results contest.
(31:17):
How do we get equally greater value for our tax dollars?
It was, It's very very interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
I got a question for you.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
You have a question for me. It's my show.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
If I may, though, just because or other, just no, because.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You're so used to interviewing all the time, you just
cannot stop doing it.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Can I ask a question? Just question?
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Okay, SB Sin and affordable housing.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Fucked okay, stupidest law I've ever seen by by Weener.
It's ridiculous. It's I read the entire tip to tail
draft law. It's got so many flaws in it, and
it's not going to It does not solve affordability, liveability,
and workability. It's so misguided.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Can I just give an example that I saw recently
this week?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, you want you want a se the seven stories
in the Palis Stades, Go ask Steadfast LA what they're
doing about that one.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I've already been, uh, I've been pulling my hair ask
Rick about that one. But I saw the as didn't
talk about Stepan what.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
He's saying about what he give you? Did he give
you a specific answer? He knows the right answer. What
do you give you politically correct answer?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
It was pretty good. I gotta say he was pretty transparent.
And he said it's bullshit, not Steadfast LA, that's his organization.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
No, No, did Steadfast LA and Rick Russo say that
SB seventy nine bullshit?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
She didn't use that term. But you know it's there's
a much more efficient ways around. And here's the thing again,
this comes back to common sense in logic, right right,
is we need affordable housing. That's not but let's do
it sensibly, let's do it logically. The story from this
week that I saw in Korea Town, Yep, they're taking
away parking spaces from longtime residents in apartment buildings and
(32:58):
turning that parking area into eighty use. Who does that
benefit because the new people that are going to move
in as well, they're also kno going to have parking.
And sorry, we can try to culture shift and have
everybody take mass tragic, which again long term you don't
be a great idea, but is that realistic? Is Los Angeles?
And how do you take away parking from people who
already have it, who commute to their.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Just called eminent domain or a taking Okay, you can't
do that.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
No, So again these are the implementations of it. I'm
seeing affordable housing going up in wealthy, single family residential neighborhoods,
and people are like, oh, well, the wealthy blah blah. No,
because the reason you move into that neighborhood is for
that sense of community and for what you feel when
you're looking at these homes and you buy the house
and now all of a sudden, not that it's innately
(33:45):
a negative thing, but it changes the character and the
integrity of the reason that you went there in the
first place, and you need to there are ways to
do this without disrupting the way of life that people
have built and developed for themselves in their families.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
It's not a solution for affordable housing, period. It just
let's go build six seven stories. Go six stories around
any mass transit hub. There you go, And that's what
it says, correct and.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, Well, what they're qualifying as a mass transit ub
is that there's so many.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Different the key words. So if you put a bus
terminal along Sunset Boulevard, you know, the Brent Water of
the Palisades, where you can now take out some homes
and build six seven stories, I mean, come on, you're
not going to do that. You're not going to do
that. That's like, no, it makes no sense. That's myopic. And
people that are drafting legislations that have never built anything
(34:44):
in their life have no idea of urban planning, have
no idea what it's like to sign the front of
a check, and no idea what it's like to deliver
equally greater value to customers value value. And you know,
look I dreamed, team Rick Mayor of l a meek
governor and Lourie Mayor of San Francisco will get shipped done.
(35:06):
You have three business leaders getting shipped done.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I want to see the throwback to the Magic Bird
and Jordan Ads of ninety two. Then I want to see.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
We'll take back, take back California. We'll take We'll take
back California. That's the dream team, because you're you have
people that really know what they're doing. They've they've actually
aspired within the state and they want to pay back.
They want to pay forward to everybody and everyone everyone
do well, we all agree to that. So let me
(35:35):
ask you another question. Ask a lot of folks this.
You're younger, so in your life, yeah, yeah, yes, you are.
Your kid, appreciate that you're a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
It's my birthday is coming week too, so another but
go on.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Continue thirty three.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
You want to know, honestly, I want to tell. And
by the way, it's also the city of Los Angeles's
birthday September fourth, seventeen eighty one. That's when the poblodta
Is settled around the river.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Modern historian yep.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Seventeen eighty one. Forty four Poblodtis from twelve families listen
to this. This is what I think is an incredible
stat about LAU. You have forty four poblodatis. They were
called the original settlers. There was Mestizo, indigenous Mexican African
Filipino amongst that group of forty four that founded the
playblow of Los Angeles in seventeen eighty one. So when
(36:30):
we say LA is rich in culture and diverse, that
started from literal day one. So I think that's an
outstanding status. SOS September fourth, Remember that people need to
need to appreciate that. Yeah, right, and that's reflective of
LA today. So anyway, sorry I took you off track again.
I get excited about that.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
You didn't take me off track. Right on track, Okay,
go ahead, I'd spent twenty plates at one time.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Pal, there we go.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
You go fix broken. You're going to make sure those
plays don't break in your life. Is there one person
who's not alive that you'd like to spend time with
or in the history that you've read of Los Angeles
or of the United States as a historian or of
(37:16):
world culture. Because you're a worldly guy, man, I'm gonna
tell you who is the one person you'd like to
hang out with for a day. That's not alive.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I'm not gonna give you a person because I'm gonna
give you an era. And I think about this all
the time.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I'm not gonna let you do that. That's a cop out.
No way are you doing.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's such a good story, dude.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Tell your story that you're gonna get to that.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Eighteen fifties through eighteen seventies, Los Angeles, this was the
wild West. I always heard the wild West growing up,
and you think Arizona and Tombstone and you know the
cowboy towns La was a cowboy town after the Mexican
American War, when it was part America, part Californio, part
indigenous and everybody's fighting and a re state. So the
(38:01):
first African Americans, the first Black Americans were coming in.
It was everything and it was wild because it wasn't governed.
San Francisco is the main city in this new state
of California, and La wasn't attached to anything. There was
no trans Continental railroad, there was no communication. So there
was a street Cayadellos Negros, that was full with saloons
and shootouts and murders, and there was a murder a
(38:23):
day there was. La Los Angeles was the murder capital
of the world in the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties,
and there was no police department to speak of, so
it's vigilante justice and people were enforcing laws on their
own and honestly lynchings and things like this. And then
sounds like you had these minus the but you had
(38:45):
you have homeless like Tuburcio Vasquez, the Robinhood of his day,
who was a you know, he'd rob from the rich
and give to the poor, and he'd hide out in
these rocks up north of northern La County, which became
own as basque as Rocks. But that era where I'm
just like, wow, we think of Los Angeles and even
historically you can go indigenous to what it was founded
(39:07):
by the by the Spanish, and then the Mexican took
over and it was raunchos and agriculture to this era
where La was the wild West. Because you look now
and it's always the city of tomorrow and it's the
city of the future, but there are no remnants of
this around. And I'm always so fascinated in how Los
Angeles became Los Angeles. When you know when you read
(39:29):
the book there's this book Eternity Street by John mac
ferger that you're just like, wow, this was Tombstone, Like
when you see the movie Tombstone, You're like, wait, that's
like Los Angeles was like that. So that always blows
my mind. So I'd like to be a fly on
the wall in that era to answer your question, to
not answer your question.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Actually, so is is Los Angeles still tomorrowland?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I think about this a lot, and this is and
you know what, I'll be honest this time. I've never
said out loud part of my a trope that I
repeat since I started l in a minute is La
is the land of the future, in the land of tomorrow.
And I've questioned that more this year than ever.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Well, an elect some better fucking leaders, would you please.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
It's a tough because it should be. We were the
land of transition and we went air. This was the oin.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Did we lose it?
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Truthfully in the last couple probably the last decade, yep,
decade plus.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And you know what, you know we did that last
decade too. We had forty five thousand new jobs to
Sacramento in the state. That's six billion dollars a year,
and what kind of value did we get for that.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Negative value?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
We're just talking about that.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah, painful doing. And look, anybody who does watch my
show knows that I am an unbridled optimist. But I
could be realistic and be objective and it's it's tough.
This year specifically was was a wake up call. And again,
whether it was the fires, the crime and continued homeless,
I mean, a lot of Hollywood's continued downfall, all these
(41:12):
legacy restaurants, the pantry over a century, Saugast Cafe eighteen
eighty seven, the oldest restaurant in the county is on
the verge of shining down. Coles, the old oldest restaurant
in La City due Pars, was in trouble. I mean,
and again, just that's not even counting the local neighborhood
mom and pop spots that are shutting down because it's
a hard place to do business.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I was bummed out when Mike's Pizza and then you know,
went on.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
That's a good I used to go to Mike's as
a kid. My parents would take me. How about flukies
and love Flukies? And I gotta do. I have to
do a story on it. My Flukeies was on Woodley
and uh, what is that over by Kennedy High School? Yeah,
that was my Flukies.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But I used to ride my bike to the market. Yeah,
I can't do that anymore. Would you allow your kids
to ride your bike?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
To talk about this week? This is absolute truth. We
have friends out of state Georgia, North Carolina that are like, oh, yeah,
the kids they went to the store. They went to
the Pickley wiggly what is it called pickup? Seven years
old and five years old. I have an eleven year
old son coincidentally, and he just picked up skateboarding and
(42:19):
he's freaking great right off the bat by the way,
But that's not the point. The point is he went
to he wanted to go to Vaughn's by himself. Okay
eight blocks away, eight blocks in one major street, but
pretty pretty close. And I was like, he's left. You know,
my wife and I are having this conversation where I'm like, yeah,
we should let him go, and then but we were
both kind of like and then so we did. But
you better believe it was some like like in the household.
(42:43):
And he look, he's good, he's self sufficient, he's independent.
But it shouldn't be a thought, no do that. And
when his friends come over and they play, we're a
lot more comfortable when they're like steeing the front yard
of the backyard than like going to the park, and
it's like, really they can. I used to ride my
bikes apart, we can go back baseball, we go play basketball,
we go just run around and do whatever, you know,
(43:03):
the proverbial home when it gets dark, and like that
was it with no cell phones. Now he at least
has an Apple Watch, so I feel like I'm tracking
him if something happens, and that's like peace of mind,
which is also no way to live that like, well,
at least he's got a tracker on his human body.
My parents were like, yeah, go just be home for dinner.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
And you and you were when we were worked always,
So this is we've got to fix it. We've got
to fix it. So you're gonna get back to this question.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Who oh no, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Who focus who that's not alive in the world of
history or politics policy, or in the United States politics policy,
or in California history, or in Los Angeles history that
is no longer alive. Would you choose if you had
one choice to spend a day with in your life.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
I'll tell you what this is gonna be an answer
that's not maybe not as great and some people would
like for the truth is anybody who knows his work
will understand there is a food writer named Jonathan Gold
who is the only food writer to win a Hewlitzer
Prize because he didn't just do food reviews. How he
actually changed the way that Americans look at food and
(44:18):
restaurants is because he would implement the culture and the
legacy and the family history that went into these restaurants
while giving these astute, informed reviews. And when you read
his reviews and his writing and his dissertations on these restaurants,
it's about the community. And what he did was he
(44:39):
was the first food critic anywhere that didn't just go
to these Michelin star restaurants, didn't just go to the
fancy places. He was the first to really go to
the hole in the wall, the immigrant run mom and pops.
And that's what enabled a lot of people to see
and feel and realize these Los Angeles communities that you
never go to because too many of us are isolated
or insulated in our own neighborhoods. But like my wife,
(45:00):
he says, be a tourist in your town. Get out,
Go to Boyle Heights, go to San Pedro, go to Silmar,
because every one of those neighborhoods has awesome restaurants, and
every restaurant has a great story, and it's the stories
of the people and the stories of the community that
really moved me. So spending a day eating and enjoying
and hearing the thoughts of Jonathan Goll would be my
(45:21):
way to spend a day with.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
What's the That's Greek restaurant. It's in San Pedro, right, Greek.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Pabla Christos was my jam. Another one that closed this year,
by the way.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
That was the place story through Plates broke Plates.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah, yes, and then Sam Pedro. I don't know the
Greek restaurant. I know Busy Bee Sandwiches down there, which
is fantastic, but off the top of my head, I
don't know. And A one is a good place, but
I don't know the Greek plates off there, to be honest,
But I know Sunken City is in San Pedro. You
know about Sunken City. No, Sunken City was a community
in nineteen twenty nine and developer I forgot his name,
(45:58):
uh one develop a beach town. It was not beach
bluff side town. It was on the bluff overlooking the
Pacific Ocean as beautiful bungalows. Wasn't super high class, but
it was upscale. There are bungalows and you know they
train as the Arab mass trans in Los Angeles. A
little little red car was running through there, the trolley's
street lights, the whole deal. Nineteen twenty nine, they start
having a slow landslide, much like in what is it
(46:22):
Ranche Palas Verdes right.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Now where all the palace burges get into the ocean.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Yeah, what's that bend? Call the where it's out, But anyway,
it's falling into the ocean. They started having a small life.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Should only take the Trump golf course and have its
far into the ocean.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
And so the community started slowly falling into.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
The ocean, call it Trump tides.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
And then all of a sudden, William Moland, who was
the city's engineer, still riding high nineteen twenty nine, came
to inspect it and he was like, yo, basically red
tagged it. They didn't have rest. Everybody else they had
to abandon the community low and behold, much of it
did slide and follow into the ocean because it was
a quicker and quicker moving landslide. But to this day,
the ruins of that community are still there at point
(47:04):
for me in San Pedro, so you could go. You're
not supposed to go, but it's pretty accessible. I didn't
send you, but if you're curious, you can check it out.
But there are actual ruins of a town bluff side
in San Pedro, which is really cool because like where
do you see ruins?
Speaker 1 (47:19):
That's cool because nobody knows that.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, exactly, So sanm Pedro is to check that. Great place,
by the way, such an underrated could be the Port
Vincent Thomas Bridge, Korean Friendship Belt. So much good stuff
in San Pedro, great architecture, a great restaurants, great people.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
We used to have really good places in Marina del
Ray where they all go.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Y has always been one of those communities that, uh
we still good restaurants there that that tries to, in
my opinion, sort of keep up with the jones Is,
but like it's still like falls behind a little bit,
Like I don't know if it's demographic, like some boats
I mean it's it's a great place, but it's tough
(48:00):
because they really are insulated, and you're sort of.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
What's your prediction on the Palisade Will it become the
Palisades again?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Think about that a lot too, especially with Altadena same.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
I've been out there a lot.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
I don't know that it can. I don't think it's
realistic to believe that you can rebuild the same architecture,
the same homes, the same communities. The devastation was just
too vast. And what you had had so much history,
I mean Palisades specific both two different things. Palisades had
this history of Holocaust survivors and people escaping the Holocaust.
(48:37):
Is one of the first true Jewish intellectual communities in
Los Angeles. So what comes out of that, and that
the artist gatherings, whether it was these great classical artists
or philosophers or writers, you know, really had sort of
like a de facto think tank in Palisades and they
developed the homes and the history and the buildings that
came in there. And Altadena was one of the first
(48:59):
communities Los Angeles where African Americans were allowed to buy
property and buy homes. Redistrict I mean read red line.
Thank you very much was redlined. And these are like
first generational wealth African Americans in Los Angeles that developed
communities and culture and restaurants. And again with these homes,
if you ever drove through Altadena, we almost lived in
(49:20):
Altadena in twenty nineteen, true story, We almost bought a
home out there. It's too far for me. I like
being in the middle of stuff. It's a little bit
too quiet, but it is beautiful, gorgeous, and the homes
are amazing, the properties are amazing. One of the streets
in Altadena, I forget what it's called, was actually used
as the intro shot for Beverly Hills nine oh two
to one oer, which I was like mind blown when I thought.
But the point is Altadena stood in for Beverly Hills
(49:43):
and like, yeah, that's destroyed. How do you rebuild that?
I don't think either of them could come back as is,
and that's pretty devastating. Frankly said, can they.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
With new leadership? It can? You need some business leadership
to to get involved. Look, we're seeing what's happening now
with our failed leadership. Look at the the quote to
do the La Fire Concert Tour what do we raise
one hundred million dollars? Where that money got?
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Where did that money go?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Ask Irving A's off he set it up, Irving and
Shelley as often they set that up. They were the
big cheeses on that owners of the Apple band, by
the way, Oh yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
That's a hornet's nest, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
But who's gonna ask those tough questions where's the money go?
Do you know I have not found one person in
the Palisades that's gotten a dollar, nor in Alta Dina
from the fire Aid concert.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
True story, I heard both of those things.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
And I do know that the money has gone from
the fire Aid concert to charities upon charities, pon charities,
pon charities. That means all this gna of their operations
have just sucked up the money. And do you think
the people that went to that fire aid concert got
value they're hard earned dollars. No, they got ripped off.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
They didn't.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
They didn't get So who's going to pay the price
on that one?
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Well?
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, all of us together. And it just goes to
the point of how do we let this happen? We
just we gloss over these things. We just let it happen.
Let it roll off our shoulders. No big deal. Yes,
it is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
It is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
It's a big deal. We want the pali Stades to
be the Palistates. We want Alta Dina to be out
to Dina. We want to help these folks get rebuilt
and get them help. They shouldn't. You have these charities
set up to help them with any and all facets
of their life. That's what these charities are set up
to do, you know. And you can't just set it
(51:44):
up for the bougie moment of the TV clip when
it happened. That's a lifelong project, almost till the last
home is rebuilt, the last school is rebuilt, the last
business is rebuilt in both those two communities. And if
you're taking charge or of either one of those two
areas that you better see it through.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
You need accountability, and accountability comes with transparency.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
You have to have transparency, accountability, you have to have
execution and enforcement. This is what we're lacking. So I
hope we can't beat tomorrow Land again. Yeah, that'd be nice.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
La Is the city is a very resilient city. I
will say that. I mean, look, this is we.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Have the ability to recover all the time because you
were I don't know if you were you here at
the Northwich.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
I was in North north Hills Techlei, which is Supulvid
at the time, which is the adjacent.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
North Hills is a new term. Yes, it did not exist.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
Suppled before that was Mission Acres. But yes, I grew up.
So the epicenter was on Lasting and Balbo, right across
the street from an In and Out and og in
and out by the way, and we lived at Woodley
and Nordoff, which was two miles away, so we were
Our house was red tagged, our chimney fell in our
neighbor's house, dresser fell on my mom's side of the bed,
but somehow my mom like escaped it. We were devastated
(53:00):
by earthquake. But what about it.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
We recover absolutely. How many freeways have we lost in earthquake?
I mean, come on, we recover, We recover quick and
if we really put our minds to it. I'm gonna
give I am going to give one kudos to the
state and the city. When we had the problem on
I ten with the fire and they said it was
(53:23):
going to take months and months to do, and all
of a sudden they got that done in ten days.
Holy shit. Oh, so guess what it can be done?
Speaker 2 (53:32):
It can't be done when there's enough pressure and you
turn there you.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
Go, so guess what? I guess? So that fire really
was up all their asses. But they got it done.
So you don't tell me you can't get it done.
I know you can get it done. So do we are?
We have we had enough? Have we had enough? And
I really worry for for all of you, for all
of your futures. I'm ringing that nine to one one
(53:59):
bell folk, it is the time is here, the time
is now. And if you want to elect the same old,
same old, you're going to get the same level of
insanity going forward and you won't survive. And today's been great, Evan.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
I wish you success. You are the LA historian. One
last question, sure did you come out of your mom's
womb saying what's up?
Speaker 2 (54:25):
What is up? You know? I'll tell you something funny
before I go, is there's a true story that's ever
been told. When I was born, I actually had to
be flown two children's hospital via helicopter before my mom
could even hold me in her arms. So I don't
know what that has to do with anything about my
verbosity or or well, no, that's that's that's that's that's
(54:48):
your stick.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Now. That's where what's up came from because you were
like your mom was your mom was going like what's up?
And you said, what's up? What's up? Yeah, that's you.
That's good. Well, appreciate everything you do and keep doing
a great job.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Thank you very much. I appreciate what you're doing. You
do a great job, great message. And look, this is
the truth. I'm optimistic. We're in a tough time right
now and we do need good, strong leadership with a
clear vision. And you know, most people that I talk
to from both sides are not exactly happy without things
are going right now. So that means change, and that
(55:28):
means get out and vote and have an impact in
your community. And mister Kluback right here is a very
very strong candidate. So take his word seriously, take them
to heart.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
I'm here for all of us. I got no trophy
in this game. This is tough. It's the toughest thing
I've ever done. And I'm just calling it like I
see it. I'm apologetically authentic and I'm just here for everybody,
and I hope we are all successful because it's too
great of a state to let it go where it's going.
(55:59):
There's no better place the United States. There's no greater state.
We are our country. We gotta act like one, and
we gotta do it together. So let's rock together.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
California, California. Gett clue semen comic is the Griforia stemen
comet were bast
Hi, Welcome to Stephen Jay Clueback podcast today. I'm so
happy to have Evan love It here with me. Evan
and I became best friends, and Evan is a modern
day historian of Los Angeles. I've been captivated by all
his work. I watch it all the time. You should, too,
Alien in a minute. It's amazing because you really learn
(00:24):
a lot. Because California is just such a vast place.
And I've talked about this before. It's broken. It's broken,
and we're out of business. We've got to open this
place back up for business. It's not affordable, livable, or workable.
And if we don't disrupt what's going on right now,
(00:46):
the future for a many of you is bleak. It
really is. I've done the due diligence, I've done the homework,
and everyone that's in office right now is compromised. I've
found they pander to each other, and we really need
to take it back because they've got about the customer
of California, because we are all customers. So Evan, let's
(01:07):
talk about la you your vibrant history here. Let's talk
about some things that have happened to you. I know crime.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well first and foremost thank you for being here. I
appreciate that, appreciate what you've accomplished and what you're doing.
And I must take a little umbrage. California is not broken.
I do agree that there are some legislative issues and
some elected officials that may not be optimal and in
(01:39):
fact are having us head in the wrong direction. But
broken would almost insinuate that it can't be fixed. And
I know that with the right leadership in place, it
absolutely can recover.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
That's a better way of saying it. That's a better
way of saying it. I use the word broken because
it's got to get fixed, and you need those fixed broken.
That's true because I fixed most broken of companies and
they were broken. They were broken twenty years. So something
can be broken, but fixable, true, and California is fixable.
There are solutions, but we together need to as customers,
(02:13):
need to stand up and do it together. And it's
that time because we're at that breaking point. And I
think we just saw it with the fires in Los
Angeles and the crime, but we got fires throughout the state.
We have leaders that have never signed the front of
a check. We have leaders that don't understand our public safety,
police and fire our foremost to us. That's what we
(02:36):
pay our text dollars for. First thing is life safety. Correct,
So who that's running for office? Everyone needs to ask
himself out of those that are running for office right
now in this next cycle, who do you trust with
your family and friends, life safety, police and fire.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'll tell you this is that the answer is a
lot different than it was in twenty twenty two for
most voters. And I will agree with this. Listen is
here's the truth. And I will just say this freely
and openly, and this is the truth. I am a
born and bred Democrat Liberal. My dad burned his draft
card and my mom burned her bra That's the kind
(03:14):
of household. I grew up in. Hippies, pot smoking, not me,
me later, But when I was a young age, they
were transparent about it. Great parents loved them. But first
ballot I ever checked Bill Clinton nineteen ninety six, proud
dear friend of mine, every blue box since. However, starting
about twenty seventeen, as I grew older, became a homeowner,
(03:38):
had a child, family, real bills, real obligations. Coincidentally or not,
I started noticing different things in the city of Los
Angeles to allude to some of the points you were making.
Homelessness crime at first a nuisance, then absolutely trouble and
something that as you mentioned affected me first person. You
(04:03):
You were opped, we were robbed, our home was burglarized.
In March, we came along.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Did you call the police?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Did call? The police called nine one one?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
How'd that work out?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So I do want to say this. It was initially
as I was on the call and her neighbors were
over and my son and wife were screaming. You know,
they showed up fifty eight minutes later, but nine one
one did answer the call, which is something that you know, I,
in the fog of war, was not necessarily aware of,
because they put you on hold. They're like is your
(04:34):
life in danger? And then you're like no, and then
they're like, okay, hold please, And then it was fifty
eight minutes before that call came through. And then once
the call did go through to a human being after
that point, they showed up six minutes later, which is
relatively quick. But when you're in that kind of despair
and you're you've just been victimized with the kid, three
dogs too, who are also you know, anybody who's.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
A dog on her nose?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Your kids, You're scared and you're nervous and you don't
know what's going on. So that was a big shot
across the bout. But the thing is, we knew our
neighborhood nice neighbor I'll be honest. We live in Studio City.
It's a fairly nice neighborhood. There'd been break ins, There're
been burglaries all throughout the San Fernando Valley and Sino Tarzana.
(05:14):
I grew up in bel Air right and these things
have been happening more frequently. So we knew crime was
around the corner because we had also seen homeless encampments
in our neighborhood. There were also incidents where a homeless
person broke into three of our well climbed into three
of our backyards, and then housed himself in a garage
(05:37):
of a neighbor. And when that neighbor called nine to
one tried to have him arrested, they wanted him to
the one of the homeowner to sign a permission to arrests,
which I was like, that's crazy that you can't. So
we knew that that was coming. But that is and
I've been more transparent about this reflective of the leadership.
I'm going to speak specifically about many members of the
(05:59):
city Council, in my opinion, where their values. And again
this is coming from a liberal. I was born and
raised to compassion and you know everyone and this is
how I grew up. And the thing is, you get
people in office who have this utopian vision of something
that on paper and in the ether is great, and
(06:24):
it's a great vision, and we want to help everybody,
and we we don't need police. There are alternative methods
of of you know, controlling crime and things like this,
but the reality is you use the analogy of never
having signed the front of a check. You know, I feel,
I don't know if they've never been in this situation,
but at a certain point, certain things just don't work.
(06:46):
And you can't have a functional society without a strong
enforcing body, without there being ramification. And when you had,
you know, a DA that didn't punish criminals, when you
had a have a city council that doesn't really focus
on crime or prioritize policing and things of that nature,
(07:07):
I see the result of that firsthand, and I'm like, well,
this is what happens. You know, homelessness is improving marginally. Sure,
the numbers on crime, it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Quick enough because I've been involved in homelessness and it
you know, there's a supping court ruling that allows cities
to clean up the streets, right, right, we're not enforcing.
So we've elected leaders that are not accountable because they've
never signed the front of a check. Correct, there's no
receipts for our money with two signatures on the check. Correct,
(07:42):
there's no execution. There's no excution of the job that
they're entailed to do. And we don't enforce the laws
because they won't enforcement because they're too weak. They're not woke,
they're weak.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
And just a great comment and just to show that
these aren't platitudes. The city couldn't account for three billion
dollars supposed to be accounting for homeless right, and that's
why you had the big turnover with loss of the
organization that was supposed to run and fix those That's
our money, that is our money, and it wasn't accounted for,
which is simply.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Seusable like well, you know what, let's let's blame every
mayor before mayor Bass then because if there were if
you fix broken, and if you have good accounting principles
in place, because I fixed broken, and if you don't
have receipts that have back up to it, that have
two parties sign off, so there's balance checking balance, you
(08:35):
don't pay the bill and they're just paying bills or
you're just paying our money out. And those principles should
have been in place frankly before Mayor Bass, before Mayor Garcetti,
before Mayor Villa Ricoso. So guess what they're all to blame?
(08:57):
You know, who's really to blame?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Who of us?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Because we let it happen on our watch? So when
are we going to have enough?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Evan, we let it have it happen our watch. But
also it's worth saying that those of you that don't vote,
or anybody not voting is just as if not even
more accountable, because you see the turnout numbers and they're
honestly despicable slash embarrassing. It is what it is. I
wish it would improve. I wish we could get people
more into politics on my show. Whenever I talk about politics,
even from an a political perspective, people are like, oh,
(09:26):
we don't want to hear about politics. No, but you
do want to complain or have a comment, or you
don't get you something so that your vote, your vote
is your improt Do you know.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
What I tell you know what I tell folks when
they want to complain. I said, first of all, do
you have a job. Do you get up early and
stay late? Right? Right? Do you go to work with
the running knows? I do? I did, I still do?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And I said did you vote? And they go no.
It's usually they do have a job somewhat or they
do have a real job, but they don't vote, but
they want to complain. I said, you know what, you
cannot complain. You have no right to complain because you
didn't vote, and you know what your future is at
risk now, So you better get your ass up off
the couch, get involved and vote, because if you don't,
(10:12):
all of your futures are at risk. I've now done
the due diligence. I never even thought about running for office.
I did it because I interviewed every candidate evan and
you know, I've studied hard now eighteen months and.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
There's solutions as.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But I look at the folks, both on the Democrat
and the Republican side, and not one person is signed
the front of a check. Not one person is managed
people or created jobs, not one person other than you know,
Mayor Villa Rogoso for a hot minute managing life safety
of others. And they're all compromised. They're all compromised. No
(10:51):
one's coming to the table cleanly. No one's also fixed broken,
and where we are broken, and it's fixable, but we're
going to really really be in trouble. And I'm sounding
the alarm because I've done the homework and I'm coming
to the table just for everyone's knowledge, California's and deep shit,
(11:15):
we've got structural issues with insurance, affordability, liveability, workability, human
resource law, too many regulations. And you know what, everyone says,
you sound like the Trump of the Democrats. You sound
like a Republican. But you know what, No, I'm a
blue dog Democrat. I am what democrats used to be.
And I'm still the same. Okay, I'm still the same, right, Okay,
(11:38):
we still want in my world. I want seeing in
humane immigration and a pathway to citizenship, and we do
things with love and compassion. But you know what, I'm
going to be unapologic, unapologetically authentic, Evan, I'm not going
to mix words because I'm going to ride or die.
So all your futures are safe, because if I don't
(12:02):
say these things and we don't get this voter turnout
with the youth vote, the younger vote eighteen to thirty five,
it's your future you're all gambling with right now. You
know what I'm going to be. Okay, you're not nine folks,
nine one one. When I grew up, it was Network.
(12:25):
Remember the movie Network Network was go out your window
and say I can't, I can't take it anymore and
bang your pots and pants.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's an old movie.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And there's another movie a few good ben Yes, Jack Nicholson,
what's that famous line you can't handle the truth, the truth? Well,
this is that moment in time you can't handle the truth.
This is the truth, folks. I don't need to pontificate,
and I love to hear your opinions on how you'd
(12:57):
fix How would you fix well, that's your homelessness. No, No,
my job is to listen to everyone and do it together. See,
I'm not dictatorial, Okay. I believe we all need to
work together to solve what we want, what do we want?
And then how do we achieve it where we get
equally greater value evan.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
True safety, cleanliness. We want to put a meal on
the table for our family. We want to be able
to have our kids walk to the park on the
corner without worrying about them like I didn't. You're able
to walk your dog without carrying pepper spray. Yeah, things
like that. Yeah, So I think, And that's one thing
I want to say is I think that what people
didn't realize for a good decade plus now is that
(13:40):
you can be have a little bit of overlap in
your ven diagram of values or of politics, where before
it was if that person's still you see, if that
person's a Republican, well I don't even want to have
lunch with them. I'm not going to have a compent.
Don't even put me on that text thread. People have
told me like, and I'm like, wait, you guys want
the scene things, you're going about it a different way.
(14:02):
Or Democrats like, oh, they're stupid, they're ignorant. They're not
all like that, And people want the same things. And
what I see is that there are common sense, logical
in the middle solutions. But right now, what takes all
the oxygen in the room. Are these polarizing opinions that
allowed people to ten percent on both sides?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
No, it's actually on both sides. Seventy of us, seventy
percent of us believe you've done I've done.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I've done that.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
The survey of all of us in California, and sixty
eight to seventy percent of us want the same thing. Well,
that's super majority, folks. Then we just don't have a voice.
Let's have the voice and have the bravado. I mean,
I've been called a Republican. I've been a Democrat my
whole life. I mean, I don't care. I'm the Trump
of the Democratic Party. Okay, so what at least I've
(14:48):
got morals, ethics, values, and I pay my contractors and
I serve he wants to be served. So we're different.
We both have a big personality. But I worry about
your future in your kids because you don't have the
aspiration I had when I grew up here.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Well, I'll tell you this, Look, I always remain optimistic,
and I know that. You know, with the narrative of
things are broken. Look, there's definitely some damage, and we
especially since COVID, certain things have been exacerbated. But the
fact is that more people that I talk to are
sort of coming to that middle that I realized before,
(15:28):
where it's just it's logic, it's common good, right. It's
not okay to happen on your residential street corner. It's
not okay to have downtown Los Angeles smelling like you're
in when you get out of your car. It's not
okay that I drive on Fairfax yesterday coming home from
the from the Grove and from Fairfax at the original
(15:50):
Farmer's Market to a little bit beyond Melrose, it looks
honestly like the third world country. And it pains me
to say that because you got canters in there, You've
got Diamond Bakery, and there you have some legend of
the hundreds was in their street culture. Everything was right there,
Fairfax High School, Anthony Keen, it's right out Jilli Pepper's
LA History on this one stretch. And you drive there
and you're sad and despund it and despair and how
(16:12):
did it get like that? And that's not the only
area in LA. So things got like that And people
are starting to realize that g maybe these pie in
the sky unrealistic utopian visions that I had under the
cloud of COVID weren't working because it's led to this.
So I think that in twenty twenty six, specifically germane
(16:33):
to the elections, you're going to see a swing of
the pendulum back towards common sense and logic.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
We have to, yeah, so we have to. And I'm
speaking for LA and that's what people are starting to
talk about, that they've got to get out and vote
and make it happen. Otherwise it's gonna get worse, right,
And that's my prediction, and I hope it doesn't. You know,
(17:03):
I wish Rick Caruso would be mayor right now. That
would be awesome. I went to high school with him.
He's a good guy.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
He was on my podcast this week, so he's a
good guy.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, And you know, look, he's really an independent. Rick's not,
you know, he's a registered and independent. He's given to
so many pro life candidates in the past. He can
never get past that athletic, proud Catholic great. I love it,
Tanan cath great, super fantastic, and he's uh, he'd be
(17:33):
a good face for Los Angeles. And you know, but
you have to hear what the twelve other socialists?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You know, the city county, City Council's interesting makeup, And
again I think that is a reflection of during COVID,
people were clouded in more ways than one, and that
twenty twenty two election really put us behind a ball
on a number of things. In twenty twenty four, the
reps that were.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Like, are we going to recover for FIFA? The Super
Bowl and the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And you don't know, we talks about the NBA All
Star Game. I just put that together. Tose you actually
got the NBA All Star Game when it's that World
Cup February next year. Okay, the women US Women's Tennis Open,
uh said? The World Cup, the super Bowl and the
Olympics and those that's just sports. That that's just it's
not sports. No city in world history has had three
events in that caliber and back to back back.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So how do you do that? We have an airport
that looks like a war zone, which is the necktie
of our embarkation and debarkation. You know, that's where people
come into and go out of the first thing people
see is our airport, and there there's no life safety
really to speak of. There's no music, there's no beautiful walls,
(18:45):
there's no art there lacking. Restaurants are terrible. You're mister
restaurant all over the place. We'll talk about that in
a minute. But you don't have the collegiality, the curb
side manner welcome.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It's tough. The horse shoe that you know that comes
historically from two things, And you're right. I actually did
of an entire podcast episode on is Lax the worst
airport in the United States, at least of a major city,
And I kind of think it is. But that does
come from the fact that it wasn't meant to be
our first airport. It's mines Field. It was just runway
strips with alfalfa and sheep, while Glendale Central Air Terminal
(19:21):
was the main and first airport of the United States.
And then when they did design in the fifties, they
thought that horseshoe design and the theme building was futuristic
and architecturally appealing and beautiful. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't,
but it kind of pinned in that. So what we true,
but what we need to do is a complete overhaul,
(19:42):
and that starts with mass transit. And I'm not exactly
the biggest mass transit advocate. I'm an advocate in the
sense that we need it, but I'm also realistic in
the sense that the city of this size to implement
what would really be efficient trains, buses, monoails, perhaps support.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Beijing or Shanghai. Of course, Okay, then why don't tell
me it's not possible.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
John is a different story, and I think we know
that first of all, and cities, but La and again
I will always go back to this was born out
of car culture. What makes Los Angeles great, yep, is
because we were the first city not just to embrace
the freeways, but to plan our city, and our city
grew around the freeways and driving and the car. So
now we're putting in the trains and the buses and
(20:31):
all this kind of stuff on top of it. And yes,
before somebody calls me out, we were also the mass
transit capital of the world in the nineteen twenties going
into the nineteen thirties. But those of you that have
seen who framed Roger Rabbit, though not exactly true historically,
it is a good indication of what happened because again
we're the hub of the automobile industry. Tire factory. The
Citadel off the five used to be a tire factory,
(20:53):
Goodyear Aerospace. Everything revolved around the car, especially when freeways
came in, so we undid all that work. And then
now we have the freeways in the cars and car
culture ingrained. Now we're trying to put trains on top
of it. So it's tough, and that's what would really
help LAX. They're doing that people mover thing. It's not complete.
But to your point, why is it not happening Because
(21:14):
there is so much red tape, because there is so
much bureaucracy, because there is so much legislative infighting that
a good solution in this day and age is neither
efficient nor possible with the current legislative legislators and legislative
red tape.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So they don't have experience. I mean, you want to
look at Las Vegas. They built the Monoro, failed twice.
They never connected it to the airport. What a joke. Yeah, yeah,
well it's not weird because you had politicians doing it,
not experienced business people. I mean, same thing, But we
have put we've got to take a really hard look
at who we're putting in charge, right, and you know,
(21:54):
we have. They're doing a really good job. Lori's doing
Mayor Lurry up in San Francisco now and cleaning up
San francisc Club. Spent a lot of time up there,
and I'm seeing the difference.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Do you want a true story? Is this? I was
in San Francisco back when I was in the private sector.
I was in advertising floor, but I was up there
for a trade show. It's about two thousand and nine,
twenty ten, and it's a true story. We were in
front of what was called the Cliff Hotel, the Cliff
Hotel Cliff, Yeah, the Cliff four seasons and no joke.
You know that was San Francisco in its nader. Let's
(22:29):
say we were literally stepping over homeless people to get
to the next place. And my buddy was in town
from Florida. Jeff shout out, Jeff roach. He says, Ev,
you better be careful. He says, LA is going to
be like this in ten years. And I said, no,
that can't happen. LA is not gonna be a crime here,
homeless there. You don't want to want. San Francisco is
(22:50):
such a beautiful, amazing, walkable, incredible city, and at that
time it was well, hail a cab. This is before uber.
You know, you get a cab because you could even
walk around San Francisco because if it wasn't the homeless,
it was a crime. And he says, LA is going
to be and I was like, get out of here
and lo and behold. LA ended up going that direction.
(23:11):
But San Francisco was the first to course correct and
like you see, and the narrative becomes, now I'm here
San Francis.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
We've got a business leader. That was correct. You got
a business leader elected mayor and he's getting shit done
and he's embracing it, rolling up his sleeves and doing
the work. He's loving it. Bravo, Mayor Laurie. No, he is.
He's enjoying it. He's doing a good job. And you
can change it really quick because I've fixed broken and
(23:39):
you can do it as long as you're all in.
You got to lean all into it. Take Away, What's
best Burger in California?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Me? Yes, that was a quick pivot. I was it
ready for that. What's the best? Listen in?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
You do this for a living, but maybe you're gonna
see how somebody else can do it too.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's the easy answer. To tell you the truth, and
it's a great satisfying answer. I love Apple Pam because
of its history. Nineteen forty seven West Side Classic. I
went to UCLA Father's office, ushered in the new era
of Hamburger's, shout out to Chef Sun Young and look
(24:19):
if for my money. I don't know if this is
the best burger, but my favorite burger. If it's a
special occasion, any burger's a lot, I'm gonna go to
Tommy's and get a double chili cheese burger with chili
cheese fries. That's my favorite burger in California. Also a
great story rated Yeah. Rampart, Yeah, absolutely, Beverly Rampart, Tommy
Kolax nineteen forty six just started with eight stools in
(24:42):
a tiny, little little shack.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Whomali though, Oh yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I just had that for the first time about a
couple well a couple of years ago. I say the
first time, because I grew up. Why would I pass
up a double chili cheese burger. You know, I was like, it's.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Incredible, Tomorrow's amazing. Yeah, that's good, all right, just checking
it out. What is the most amazing fact about Los
Angeles that people don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Oh no, there's so many no ones. I listen, I've
done eighteen hundred different episodes in three and a half years.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
LA. In a minute, I'm gonna ask history culture. Okay,
is it Chandler, Lancersham, Chatsworth. Who who of these great Angelinos?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah? Yeah, I've called Harrison gray otis probably the most impactful.
He ran the LA Times and now the LA Times
again speaking of Michelle of its former self, but the
La Times at one point not only was the most
powerful voice on the West Coast, but for generations could
drive policy. The LA Times is the reason why we
have the La Aqueduct, because Harrison gray Otis used his
(25:52):
bully pulpit to make things happen. And in the development
of Los Angeles from eighteen eighty when he took over
the paper and LA had twenty thousand people to the
time he passed away around nineteen twenty and it was
over a million. He spearheaded a lot of that growth.
So all these Nate Chandler and Chandler took the baton
from him, and Chandler is extremely impactful because he's behind
all these you know, Hollywood Bowl. I want to say
(26:14):
the Rose Bowl, but a lot of the great landmarks
of Los Angeles as well. You could say Mulholland because
he's a reason Water came in, but he has a
complicated legacy. But I want to go back to the
fact thing, because there's two that I enjoy. One the
Burbank Airport, the entire Burbank Airport, which is getting a
big redo right now, which is getting a big overhaul.
It was camouflaged during World War Two, and what I
(26:37):
mean by that is thinking the size that it's Again
it's not a quote major airport, but it is a
major airport. And more importantly, it housed Lockheed, which was
absolutely integral in the World War Two in the war effort,
so it became a strategic target.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Do people know that we had McDonald Douglas, Lockheed, Boeing,
Raytheon Rocket Dyne.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Aerospace, Capitol, world El Segundo. But a lot of that
was in Burbank because the training was out there the
Curtis Technical Institute. So became a perceived target from you know,
access planes and spies. So they had to camouflage airport.
What happens to be right down the street from Burbank
were the Disney studios. So you had these great artists
(27:20):
and thinkers and creative animators that were able to work
with the logical, military and engineering mines at Bourban Airport.
So they were able to cover the entire airport with
canvas and tarp and not just okay, that's what does
that do, but they actually built like cardboard and paper
mache cars, homes, people that people underneath this canvas and
(27:43):
tarp fifty feet there were moving around in normal daily
activities to make it look as if any spy plane
was above. Oh, this is just more rolling hills in
the San Fernando Valley, which wasn't fully developed at the time.
And to see these pictures where you're like, this is
the Burbank Airport in nineteen forty, this is the Burke Airport.
When it's camouflage, You're like, holy shit, it looks like
(28:04):
the northern San Fernando Valley, just bucolic rolling hills everywhere
you could see. And one I want to throw you
because it kind of ties today and yesterday together. Have
you ever heard of Richard Katz, former Assemblymen? Yeah, okay,
nineteen eighty nine, Richard Katz had the idea to turn
the La River into a freeway. And this made it
(28:24):
all the way up to the California State Assembly, but
it was greenlit all the way up because what he
was going to do was keep the river, but make
lanes on either side from the west San Fernando Valley
out to Long Beach for high occupancy vehicles, whether that
was buses or just carpool lanes, and the La River
(28:45):
was going to because traffic, traffic has been the story
of Los Angeles since the freeways were built. When they
when the four or five opened, by the way, four
or five freeway open within twelve minutes, the first single
art happened. That's how fast traffic happens last night. But
look at the story. But hold on, So he was
gonna make the La We're a freeway. And can you
imagine now, I mean with what we have the movement
(29:05):
to naturalize the La River and it has you know
in certain areas, that's a whole project that's gone wayward
because you go one strip and it's beautiful one strip.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
How about how about Caltrans? You know, we pay gas
tax to Caltrans to take care of our roads. Why
is Southern California filthy and northern California clean. The freeways
are absolutely spotless in northern California. Spotless, pristine, gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
It's true, it's true.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
But let's speak. I got a question.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Here's what I thought you were gonna say about Caltrans.
Why is it going to take four years to repave
two lanes on the four oh five. That's what I
want Anybody who's driving on the four h five right now,
you want to know this not every weekend, but many
weekends over the next four years. And you've seen it
over some recent year weekends. Is it's down to three
lanes and this is the highest trafficked freeway in the
(29:56):
United States, which understood needs improvements, But why is it
going to take four years? They're not renovating the whole freeway?
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Sorry, go on, because you have leaders in Sacramento that
have never built anything. And the longer the unions can
drag it out, the more they all get paid. And
it's our money. I call bullshit on all of them
that come on, just bullshit. Why don't we work three
shifts and get it done. I mean they'd say they
(30:24):
want three shifts, but they don't want three shifts because
they want a Lengthen you know, it's part of.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
The regulations, right, is where that comes in.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
There's so many we're regulated to death. Regulations are good
to keep bad actors out. Too many regulations that beat
good business from doing good business. It's really something no,
And I'm a regulator. I was a regulator, I was
a judge. I come with experience. I fixed broken business.
You know there are solutions here. We need good business
(30:54):
leaders to get involved and solve some of these problems.
But you know, most business leaders wouldn't do this because
you know, you get you put yourself way out there
and it's unforgiving. But you just have to be able
to disrupt and not get sucked into the vortex of pandering.
And it's not a likability contest. It's about a results contest.
(31:17):
How do we get equally greater value for our tax dollars?
It was, It's very very interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
I got a question for you.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
You have a question for me. It's my show.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
If I may, though, just because or other, just no, because.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You're so used to interviewing all the time, you just
cannot stop doing it.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Can I ask a question? Just question?
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Okay, SB Sin and affordable housing.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Fucked okay, stupidest law I've ever seen by by Weener.
It's ridiculous. It's I read the entire tip to tail
draft law. It's got so many flaws in it, and
it's not going to It does not solve affordability, liveability,
and workability. It's so misguided.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Can I just give an example that I saw recently
this week?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, you want you want a se the seven stories
in the Palis Stades, Go ask Steadfast LA what they're
doing about that one.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I've already been, uh, I've been pulling my hair ask
Rick about that one. But I saw the as didn't
talk about Stepan what.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
He's saying about what he give you? Did he give
you a specific answer? He knows the right answer. What
do you give you politically correct answer?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
It was pretty good. I gotta say he was pretty transparent.
And he said it's bullshit, not Steadfast LA, that's his organization.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
No, No, did Steadfast LA and Rick Russo say that
SB seventy nine bullshit?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
She didn't use that term. But you know it's there's
a much more efficient ways around. And here's the thing again,
this comes back to common sense in logic, right right,
is we need affordable housing. That's not but let's do
it sensibly, let's do it logically. The story from this
week that I saw in Korea Town, Yep, they're taking
away parking spaces from longtime residents in apartment buildings and
(32:58):
turning that parking area into eighty use. Who does that
benefit because the new people that are going to move
in as well, they're also kno going to have parking.
And sorry, we can try to culture shift and have
everybody take mass tragic, which again long term you don't
be a great idea, but is that realistic? Is Los Angeles?
And how do you take away parking from people who
already have it, who commute to their.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Just called eminent domain or a taking Okay, you can't
do that.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
No, So again these are the implementations of it. I'm
seeing affordable housing going up in wealthy, single family residential neighborhoods,
and people are like, oh, well, the wealthy blah blah. No,
because the reason you move into that neighborhood is for
that sense of community and for what you feel when
you're looking at these homes and you buy the house
and now all of a sudden, not that it's innately
(33:45):
a negative thing, but it changes the character and the
integrity of the reason that you went there in the
first place, and you need to there are ways to
do this without disrupting the way of life that people
have built and developed for themselves in their families.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
It's not a solution for affordable housing, period. It just
let's go build six seven stories. Go six stories around
any mass transit hub. There you go, And that's what
it says, correct and.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, Well, what they're qualifying as a mass transit ub
is that there's so many.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Different the key words. So if you put a bus
terminal along Sunset Boulevard, you know, the Brent Water of
the Palisades, where you can now take out some homes
and build six seven stories, I mean, come on, you're
not going to do that. You're not going to do
that. That's like, no, it makes no sense. That's myopic. And
people that are drafting legislations that have never built anything
(34:44):
in their life have no idea of urban planning, have
no idea what it's like to sign the front of
a check, and no idea what it's like to deliver
equally greater value to customers value value. And you know,
look I dreamed, team Rick Mayor of l a meek
governor and Lourie Mayor of San Francisco will get shipped done.
(35:06):
You have three business leaders getting shipped done.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I want to see the throwback to the Magic Bird
and Jordan Ads of ninety two. Then I want to see.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
We'll take back, take back California. We'll take We'll take
back California. That's the dream team, because you're you have
people that really know what they're doing. They've they've actually
aspired within the state and they want to pay back.
They want to pay forward to everybody and everyone everyone
do well, we all agree to that. So let me
(35:35):
ask you another question. Ask a lot of folks this.
You're younger, so in your life, yeah, yeah, yes, you are.
Your kid, appreciate that you're a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
It's my birthday is coming week too, so another but
go on.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Continue thirty three.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
You want to know, honestly, I want to tell. And
by the way, it's also the city of Los Angeles's
birthday September fourth, seventeen eighty one. That's when the poblodta
Is settled around the river.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Modern historian yep.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Seventeen eighty one. Forty four Poblodtis from twelve families listen
to this. This is what I think is an incredible
stat about LAU. You have forty four poblodatis. They were
called the original settlers. There was Mestizo, indigenous Mexican African
Filipino amongst that group of forty four that founded the
playblow of Los Angeles in seventeen eighty one. So when
(36:30):
we say LA is rich in culture and diverse, that
started from literal day one. So I think that's an
outstanding status. SOS September fourth, Remember that people need to
need to appreciate that. Yeah, right, and that's reflective of
LA today. So anyway, sorry I took you off track again.
I get excited about that.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
You didn't take me off track. Right on track, Okay,
go ahead, I'd spent twenty plates at one time.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Pal, there we go.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
You go fix broken. You're going to make sure those
plays don't break in your life. Is there one person
who's not alive that you'd like to spend time with
or in the history that you've read of Los Angeles
or of the United States as a historian or of
(37:16):
world culture. Because you're a worldly guy, man, I'm gonna
tell you who is the one person you'd like to
hang out with for a day. That's not alive.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I'm not gonna give you a person because I'm gonna
give you an era. And I think about this all
the time.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I'm not gonna let you do that. That's a cop out.
No way are you doing.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's such a good story, dude.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Tell your story that you're gonna get to that.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Eighteen fifties through eighteen seventies, Los Angeles, this was the
wild West. I always heard the wild West growing up,
and you think Arizona and Tombstone and you know the
cowboy towns La was a cowboy town after the Mexican
American War, when it was part America, part Californio, part
indigenous and everybody's fighting and a re state. So the
(38:01):
first African Americans, the first Black Americans were coming in.
It was everything and it was wild because it wasn't governed.
San Francisco is the main city in this new state
of California, and La wasn't attached to anything. There was
no trans Continental railroad, there was no communication. So there
was a street Cayadellos Negros, that was full with saloons
and shootouts and murders, and there was a murder a
(38:23):
day there was. La Los Angeles was the murder capital
of the world in the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties,
and there was no police department to speak of, so
it's vigilante justice and people were enforcing laws on their
own and honestly lynchings and things like this. And then
sounds like you had these minus the but you had
(38:45):
you have homeless like Tuburcio Vasquez, the Robinhood of his day,
who was a you know, he'd rob from the rich
and give to the poor, and he'd hide out in
these rocks up north of northern La County, which became
own as basque as Rocks. But that era where I'm
just like, wow, we think of Los Angeles and even
historically you can go indigenous to what it was founded
(39:07):
by the by the Spanish, and then the Mexican took
over and it was raunchos and agriculture to this era
where La was the wild West. Because you look now
and it's always the city of tomorrow and it's the
city of the future, but there are no remnants of
this around. And I'm always so fascinated in how Los
Angeles became Los Angeles. When you know when you read
(39:29):
the book there's this book Eternity Street by John mac
ferger that you're just like, wow, this was Tombstone, Like
when you see the movie Tombstone, You're like, wait, that's
like Los Angeles was like that. So that always blows
my mind. So I'd like to be a fly on
the wall in that era to answer your question, to
not answer your question.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Actually, so is is Los Angeles still tomorrowland?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I think about this a lot, and this is and
you know what, I'll be honest this time. I've never
said out loud part of my a trope that I
repeat since I started l in a minute is La
is the land of the future, in the land of tomorrow.
And I've questioned that more this year than ever.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Well, an elect some better fucking leaders, would you please.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
It's a tough because it should be. We were the
land of transition and we went air. This was the oin.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Did we lose it?
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Truthfully in the last couple probably the last decade, yep,
decade plus.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And you know what, you know we did that last
decade too. We had forty five thousand new jobs to
Sacramento in the state. That's six billion dollars a year,
and what kind of value did we get for that.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Negative value?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
We're just talking about that.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah, painful doing. And look, anybody who does watch my
show knows that I am an unbridled optimist. But I
could be realistic and be objective and it's it's tough.
This year specifically was was a wake up call. And again,
whether it was the fires, the crime and continued homeless,
I mean, a lot of Hollywood's continued downfall, all these
(41:12):
legacy restaurants, the pantry over a century, Saugast Cafe eighteen
eighty seven, the oldest restaurant in the county is on
the verge of shining down. Coles, the old oldest restaurant
in La City due Pars, was in trouble. I mean,
and again, just that's not even counting the local neighborhood
mom and pop spots that are shutting down because it's
a hard place to do business.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I was bummed out when Mike's Pizza and then you know,
went on.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
That's a good I used to go to Mike's as
a kid. My parents would take me. How about flukies
and love Flukies? And I gotta do. I have to
do a story on it. My Flukeies was on Woodley
and uh, what is that over by Kennedy High School? Yeah,
that was my Flukies.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But I used to ride my bike to the market. Yeah,
I can't do that anymore. Would you allow your kids
to ride your bike?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
To talk about this week? This is absolute truth. We
have friends out of state Georgia, North Carolina that are like, oh, yeah,
the kids they went to the store. They went to
the Pickley wiggly what is it called pickup? Seven years
old and five years old. I have an eleven year
old son coincidentally, and he just picked up skateboarding and
(42:19):
he's freaking great right off the bat by the way,
But that's not the point. The point is he went
to he wanted to go to Vaughn's by himself. Okay
eight blocks away, eight blocks in one major street, but
pretty pretty close. And I was like, he's left. You know,
my wife and I are having this conversation where I'm like, yeah,
we should let him go, and then but we were
both kind of like and then so we did. But
you better believe it was some like like in the household.
(42:43):
And he look, he's good, he's self sufficient, he's independent.
But it shouldn't be a thought, no do that. And
when his friends come over and they play, we're a
lot more comfortable when they're like steeing the front yard
of the backyard than like going to the park, and
it's like, really they can. I used to ride my
bikes apart, we can go back baseball, we go play basketball,
we go just run around and do whatever, you know,
(43:03):
the proverbial home when it gets dark, and like that
was it with no cell phones. Now he at least
has an Apple Watch, so I feel like I'm tracking
him if something happens, and that's like peace of mind,
which is also no way to live that like, well,
at least he's got a tracker on his human body.
My parents were like, yeah, go just be home for dinner.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
And you and you were when we were worked always,
So this is we've got to fix it. We've got
to fix it. So you're gonna get back to this question.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Who oh no, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Who focus who that's not alive in the world of
history or politics policy, or in the United States politics policy,
or in California history, or in Los Angeles history that
is no longer alive. Would you choose if you had
one choice to spend a day with in your life.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
I'll tell you what this is gonna be an answer
that's not maybe not as great and some people would
like for the truth is anybody who knows his work
will understand there is a food writer named Jonathan Gold
who is the only food writer to win a Hewlitzer
Prize because he didn't just do food reviews. How he
actually changed the way that Americans look at food and
(44:18):
restaurants is because he would implement the culture and the
legacy and the family history that went into these restaurants
while giving these astute, informed reviews. And when you read
his reviews and his writing and his dissertations on these restaurants,
it's about the community. And what he did was he
(44:39):
was the first food critic anywhere that didn't just go
to these Michelin star restaurants, didn't just go to the
fancy places. He was the first to really go to
the hole in the wall, the immigrant run mom and pops.
And that's what enabled a lot of people to see
and feel and realize these Los Angeles communities that you
never go to because too many of us are isolated
or insulated in our own neighborhoods. But like my wife,
(45:00):
he says, be a tourist in your town. Get out,
Go to Boyle Heights, go to San Pedro, go to Silmar,
because every one of those neighborhoods has awesome restaurants, and
every restaurant has a great story, and it's the stories
of the people and the stories of the community that
really moved me. So spending a day eating and enjoying
and hearing the thoughts of Jonathan Goll would be my
(45:21):
way to spend a day with.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
What's the That's Greek restaurant. It's in San Pedro, right, Greek.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Pabla Christos was my jam. Another one that closed this year,
by the way.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
That was the place story through Plates broke Plates.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah, yes, and then Sam Pedro. I don't know the
Greek restaurant. I know Busy Bee Sandwiches down there, which
is fantastic, but off the top of my head, I
don't know. And A one is a good place, but
I don't know the Greek plates off there, to be honest,
But I know Sunken City is in San Pedro. You
know about Sunken City. No, Sunken City was a community
in nineteen twenty nine and developer I forgot his name,
(45:58):
uh one develop a beach town. It was not beach
bluff side town. It was on the bluff overlooking the
Pacific Ocean as beautiful bungalows. Wasn't super high class, but
it was upscale. There are bungalows and you know they
train as the Arab mass trans in Los Angeles. A
little little red car was running through there, the trolley's
street lights, the whole deal. Nineteen twenty nine, they start
having a slow landslide, much like in what is it
(46:22):
Ranche Palas Verdes right.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Now where all the palace burges get into the ocean.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Yeah, what's that bend? Call the where it's out, But anyway,
it's falling into the ocean. They started having a small life.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Should only take the Trump golf course and have its
far into the ocean.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
And so the community started slowly falling into.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
The ocean, call it Trump tides.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
And then all of a sudden, William Moland, who was
the city's engineer, still riding high nineteen twenty nine, came
to inspect it and he was like, yo, basically red
tagged it. They didn't have rest. Everybody else they had
to abandon the community low and behold, much of it
did slide and follow into the ocean because it was
a quicker and quicker moving landslide. But to this day,
the ruins of that community are still there at point
(47:04):
for me in San Pedro, so you could go. You're
not supposed to go, but it's pretty accessible. I didn't
send you, but if you're curious, you can check it out.
But there are actual ruins of a town bluff side
in San Pedro, which is really cool because like where
do you see ruins?
Speaker 1 (47:19):
That's cool because nobody knows that.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, exactly, So sanm Pedro is to check that. Great place,
by the way, such an underrated could be the Port
Vincent Thomas Bridge, Korean Friendship Belt. So much good stuff
in San Pedro, great architecture, a great restaurants, great people.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
We used to have really good places in Marina del
Ray where they all go.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Y has always been one of those communities that, uh
we still good restaurants there that that tries to, in
my opinion, sort of keep up with the jones Is,
but like it's still like falls behind a little bit,
Like I don't know if it's demographic, like some boats
I mean it's it's a great place, but it's tough
(48:00):
because they really are insulated, and you're sort of.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
What's your prediction on the Palisade Will it become the
Palisades again?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Think about that a lot too, especially with Altadena same.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
I've been out there a lot.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
I don't know that it can. I don't think it's
realistic to believe that you can rebuild the same architecture,
the same homes, the same communities. The devastation was just
too vast. And what you had had so much history,
I mean Palisades specific both two different things. Palisades had
this history of Holocaust survivors and people escaping the Holocaust.
(48:37):
Is one of the first true Jewish intellectual communities in
Los Angeles. So what comes out of that, and that
the artist gatherings, whether it was these great classical artists
or philosophers or writers, you know, really had sort of
like a de facto think tank in Palisades and they
developed the homes and the history and the buildings that
came in there. And Altadena was one of the first
(48:59):
communities Los Angeles where African Americans were allowed to buy
property and buy homes. Redistrict I mean read red line.
Thank you very much was redlined. And these are like
first generational wealth African Americans in Los Angeles that developed
communities and culture and restaurants. And again with these homes,
if you ever drove through Altadena, we almost lived in
(49:20):
Altadena in twenty nineteen, true story, We almost bought a
home out there. It's too far for me. I like
being in the middle of stuff. It's a little bit
too quiet, but it is beautiful, gorgeous, and the homes
are amazing, the properties are amazing. One of the streets
in Altadena, I forget what it's called, was actually used
as the intro shot for Beverly Hills nine oh two
to one oer, which I was like mind blown when I thought.
But the point is Altadena stood in for Beverly Hills
(49:43):
and like, yeah, that's destroyed. How do you rebuild that?
I don't think either of them could come back as is,
and that's pretty devastating. Frankly said, can they.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
With new leadership? It can? You need some business leadership
to to get involved. Look, we're seeing what's happening now
with our failed leadership. Look at the the quote to
do the La Fire Concert Tour what do we raise
one hundred million dollars? Where that money got?
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Where did that money go?
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Ask Irving A's off he set it up, Irving and
Shelley as often they set that up. They were the
big cheeses on that owners of the Apple band, by
the way, Oh yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
That's a hornet's nest, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
But who's gonna ask those tough questions where's the money go?
Do you know I have not found one person in
the Palisades that's gotten a dollar, nor in Alta Dina
from the fire Aid concert.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
True story, I heard both of those things.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
And I do know that the money has gone from
the fire Aid concert to charities upon charities, pon charities,
pon charities. That means all this gna of their operations
have just sucked up the money. And do you think
the people that went to that fire aid concert got
value they're hard earned dollars. No, they got ripped off.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
They didn't.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
They didn't get So who's going to pay the price
on that one?
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Well?
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, all of us together. And it just goes to
the point of how do we let this happen? We
just we gloss over these things. We just let it happen.
Let it roll off our shoulders. No big deal. Yes,
it is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
It is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
It's a big deal. We want the pali Stades to
be the Palistates. We want Alta Dina to be out
to Dina. We want to help these folks get rebuilt
and get them help. They shouldn't. You have these charities
set up to help them with any and all facets
of their life. That's what these charities are set up
to do, you know. And you can't just set it
(51:44):
up for the bougie moment of the TV clip when
it happened. That's a lifelong project, almost till the last
home is rebuilt, the last school is rebuilt, the last
business is rebuilt in both those two communities. And if
you're taking charge or of either one of those two
areas that you better see it through.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
You need accountability, and accountability comes with transparency.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
You have to have transparency, accountability, you have to have
execution and enforcement. This is what we're lacking. So I
hope we can't beat tomorrow Land again. Yeah, that'd be nice.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
La Is the city is a very resilient city. I
will say that. I mean, look, this is we.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Have the ability to recover all the time because you
were I don't know if you were you here at
the Northwich.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
I was in North north Hills Techlei, which is Supulvid
at the time, which is the adjacent.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
North Hills is a new term. Yes, it did not exist.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
Suppled before that was Mission Acres. But yes, I grew up.
So the epicenter was on Lasting and Balbo, right across
the street from an In and Out and og in
and out by the way, and we lived at Woodley
and Nordoff, which was two miles away, so we were
Our house was red tagged, our chimney fell in our
neighbor's house, dresser fell on my mom's side of the bed,
but somehow my mom like escaped it. We were devastated
(53:00):
by earthquake. But what about it.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
We recover absolutely. How many freeways have we lost in earthquake?
I mean, come on, we recover, We recover quick and
if we really put our minds to it. I'm gonna
give I am going to give one kudos to the
state and the city. When we had the problem on
I ten with the fire and they said it was
(53:23):
going to take months and months to do, and all
of a sudden they got that done in ten days.
Holy shit. Oh, so guess what it can be done?
Speaker 2 (53:32):
It can't be done when there's enough pressure and you
turn there you.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
Go, so guess what? I guess? So that fire really
was up all their asses. But they got it done.
So you don't tell me you can't get it done.
I know you can get it done. So do we are?
We have we had enough? Have we had enough? And
I really worry for for all of you, for all
of your futures. I'm ringing that nine to one one
(53:59):
bell folk, it is the time is here, the time
is now. And if you want to elect the same old,
same old, you're going to get the same level of
insanity going forward and you won't survive. And today's been great, Evan.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
I wish you success. You are the LA historian. One
last question, sure did you come out of your mom's
womb saying what's up?
Speaker 2 (54:25):
What is up? You know? I'll tell you something funny
before I go, is there's a true story that's ever
been told. When I was born, I actually had to
be flown two children's hospital via helicopter before my mom
could even hold me in her arms. So I don't
know what that has to do with anything about my
verbosity or or well, no, that's that's that's that's that's
(54:48):
your stick.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Now. That's where what's up came from because you were
like your mom was your mom was going like what's up?
And you said, what's up? What's up? Yeah, that's you.
That's good. Well, appreciate everything you do and keep doing
a great job.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Thank you very much. I appreciate what you're doing. You
do a great job, great message. And look, this is
the truth. I'm optimistic. We're in a tough time right
now and we do need good, strong leadership with a
clear vision. And you know, most people that I talk
to from both sides are not exactly happy without things
are going right now. So that means change, and that
(55:28):
means get out and vote and have an impact in
your community. And mister Kluback right here is a very
very strong candidate. So take his word seriously, take them
to heart.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
I'm here for all of us. I got no trophy
in this game. This is tough. It's the toughest thing
I've ever done. And I'm just calling it like I
see it. I'm apologetically authentic and I'm just here for everybody,
and I hope we are all successful because it's too
great of a state to let it go where it's going.
(55:59):
There's no better place the United States. There's no greater state.
We are our country. We gotta act like one, and
we gotta do it together. So let's rock together.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
California, California. Gett clue semen comic is the Griforia stemen
comet were bast
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