February 8, 2026 • 36 mins
Hour 1: The field for LA mayor is now set with a shocking twist as City Councilwoman Nithya Raman jumps in to challenge her longtime friend and political ally Mayor Karen Bass; Raman recently called for raising taxes to turn on LA’s darkened streetlights which have been hit hard by vandals and thieves; Following a deadly car crash at a grocery store in Westwood, a city councilwoman says City Hall bureaucracy has held up an already funded street safety program in that neighborhood.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've got the next couple of hours together. Happy weekend
to you, a big weekend. Indeed, hope everyone has exciting
plans for the big game or just some time to relax,
because it has been a whirlwind of a week on
the news and politics front here in Los Angeles. Saturday noon,
(00:29):
that is the deadline to file for mayor, and with
the departure of Rick Caruso, the developer here in Los
Angeles from that race, deciding not to seek a re
election bid against incombent Mayor Bass, there seemed to be
an opening for a well funded, well connected alternative to
(00:51):
the mayor, and so all of us in the news biz,
all of us in politics, and really a lot of
us in the public are looking around wondering who could
it be? Could it be Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, who had
flirted for several weeks with possibly getting into this race
(01:12):
and Donna and had done a couple of things that
lent credence to the suspicion. She moved from West Hollywood,
where she was the mayor. She's the county supervisor now,
so she doesn't have to live in the city of LA.
But she lived in West Hollywood, where she served as mayor,
and previously moved into the city limits of Los Angeles,
(01:32):
and then very recently she opened up a new social
media account that just said Lindsay for La, not LA Supervisor,
not Eli Mayor, Lindsay for LA. It looked like she
was going to do it, that she was going to
get in this race. The whole field had shifted. There
(01:56):
was an opening for somebody, but Supervisor Horvat announced early
Saturday morning, just hours before the deadline.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I know right now there's a lot ahead of us,
and it's clear you want a different kind of leadership
and you're ready to see change in your city. And
I am excited to work with you on that. It's
why you elected me to be your Los Angeles County Supervisor,
and so I know that work is not yet finished.
So I am choosing not to run for mayor and
(02:26):
instead to focus on my reelection for Los Angeles County Supervisor.
Not because I'm stepping away from a challenge, I'm stepping
even more into the one we've already started.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So Supervisor Horrorvath has decided not to run for Los
Angeles mayor and instead will run for re election as
a supervisor. And here's the other thing that you know
we've been talking about here on KFI is that there
may be a better job available, not just to Supervisor Horrorvath,
but to any politician in Los Angeles County, and that
(02:55):
is this new LA County Chief Executive. Of course, the
LA County CEO position already exists, but that person is
appointed by the supervisors. But because voters in La County
approved a ballot measure in November of twenty four, that's
going to change. The CEO will be elected. We're basically
talking about a county mayor, possibly a juicier position than
(03:19):
the city mayor. You will see a lot of people
falling all over themselves to get into that race. Maybe
that's why someone like where Caruso is sitting on the sidelines.
Maybe he sees an opportunity to do the whole county thing.
Supervisor Horvath pushed for the ballot measure to make that happen.
Could be an opportunity for her in a couple of years,
but it's clear now with her announcement, and with the
(03:39):
deadline passing that Supervisor Horvath is not going to be
a candidate for mayor, So where did that leave us?
There really wasn't any major speculation about another major candidate
jumping into challenge mayor paths. Was it just going to
be mayor Bass facing reality TV personality and Palisades Fire
(04:03):
survivor and activist Spencer Pratt, tech executive Adam Miller, and
Democratic Socialist community organizer Ray Hang seemed like a pretty
favorable field for a mayor who looked politically dead this
time last year. But then at the buzzer, another candidate
(04:30):
swoops in, and not a nobody city councilman, excuse me,
city council woman Nythia Ramen has jumped in the race
for Los Angeles mayor. Now she's not somebody on council
who antagonizes the mayor their allies. In fact, listen to
(04:51):
one LA residence enthusiasm about Nythia Ramen.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
She is a.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Perfect example of how elected officient should.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Be, starting from the grassroots, being motivated because of the
very specific problem and working to solve that problem before
she ever even thought about running the hooks and so
send her assent the council officer and now cheering your
committee on housing to homelessness.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
We tell that we have a dedicated individual and.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
I need her to be re elected to work alongside
of me to look in homelessness.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
In Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That was Mayor Karen Bass in twenty twenty four, endorsing
the reelection bid of one councilwoman at the O Raman.
These two were peas in a pod not that long ago.
Their idiologically inseparable in many ways. What motivated Councilwoman Ramen
(05:57):
to jump in this race to challenge her long time
ally Karen Bass? And what does this field of candidates
mean for you, the electorate within the city of Los
Angeles and all of you with an earshot of this
radio station. Because as goes La, so goes Southern California.
That's the real shame of it all. Because LA is
(06:18):
not in great shape right now, and it bleeds out,
it bleeds over. I should say, if LA is not
attracting big business, if it's signature industries like Hollywood are fading,
all of that trickles out into the surrounding communities. Fewer
people moving here, fewer people shopping here, fewer people visiting here,
(06:43):
and I'm comfortable in saying LA is not in great
shape and it is in need of a shot in
the arm. And whether that comes from a re elected
Karen Bass or Council of Minnitia Rahmen, or or one of
the other candidates, we've got about four months to figure out.
The primary election is in June. I'm sure most of
(07:04):
you know. But the way it works in primaries in
California for this type of office is the top two
vote getters will advance from this field. But if one
candidate gets fifty percent plus one vote, they win in
the primary. There is no general election. I think one
thing that this guarantees is that the primary won't be
(07:28):
enough to decide the race. Could be wrong. Well, have
to see out all unfolds and whether these newer candidates,
and I say newer in terms of their familiarity with
voters or voters familiarity with them, how strong, how robust
their campaigns are. But it looks like right now it's
(07:48):
safe to say that the front runners are Mayor Bass
and Councilwoman Ramen. But what a whirlwind of a week
for Mayor Bass. We get the terrible news that former
LA School Superintendent Austin Buner has left the race. And
that's not to say that his candidacy was important to us.
(08:09):
It's the reason that he had to stop his candidacy
because of his the unexpected death of his twenty two
year old daughter early last month, a terrible tragedy surrounding that.
We don't know all the details on that yet, but
he looked like he was prepared to run a serious campaign.
Could he have won? Probably, would he have? Who knows?
(08:29):
But he drops out of the race, and then the
La Times comes out with this damning report alleging that
Mayor Bass is the one who ordered all of those
edits to the after action report of the Palisades fire
that was produced by the LA Fire Department. We already
knew that it had been edited thanks to reporting from
(08:50):
the La Times, but we didn't know who did it,
And citing sources, the La Times says it was the mayor,
who denies that. That got Rick Caruso thinking, yeah, I
lost to her four years ago. I was thinking about
running this time. I already said I would not, but
now I'm thinking about it again because of that report,
so damning, I might get back in this thing, and
(09:11):
then he decides, no, I won't. And then Supervisor Horvath
is floating out there and she might challenge, and this
morning she says no. I mean, it almost looks like
Mayor Bass had the dream field for someone as embattled
as she has been since the fire in the Palisades
last year. But then this surprise, Councilwoman Ramen entering the race.
(09:35):
This will not be a cake walk after all for
the mayor. It may not have been anyway. We may
learn a lot more from Spencer Pratt, we may learn
a lot more from Adam Miller. We may learn a
lot more from Ray Wang. They're unproven politicians at this point,
but council Woman Ramen is not. She's twice elected to
the La City Council. So what did she have to
(09:56):
say about why she got in the race and what
did she say about her relaseationship with Mayor Bass? This morning,
after filing for office, we'll hear from newly announced mayoral candidate,
Councilwoman Nthia Ramen. When Michael Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you for the next couple of hours. Want
to let you know coming up at the top of
the next hour, we'll be joined by Adam Miller. Who's
Adam Miller? You wonder, well, that's what I asked him.
He's running for mayor of Los Angeles. He'll be with
us at the very top of the next hour, and
you will know who Adam Miller is. He's not just
(10:42):
running against Mayor Bass though. Councilwoman Nythia Ramen a surprise,
last minute late entry into the field and as she
filed the paperwork just as the clock was about to expire.
This is part of what she had to say.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Los Angeles needs a mayor who is going to take
responsibility for the whole system. Who is going to demand
accountability across departments, who is going to prepare for emergencies
before they happen. Who's going to communicate honestly when things
go wrong and fix what fails. Los Angeles needs a
mayor who will fight for more housing, for more affordability.
This is the only way that we are going to
(11:24):
keep this a city of opportunity. We need a mayor
who is determined to pave our streets and keep us
safe and keep the street lights on. This is a
city of extraordinary possibility, extraordinary, but possibility only matters if
our leadership is accountable for delivering it. And I'm ready
to leave the city with seriousness, accountability, urgency, and ambition
(11:44):
that is equal to this moment.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's at least city council woman, just moments after filing
to run for mayor of Los Angeles against her one
time close friend, Mayor Bass, did not notice that there
was some sort of rift brewing between them. Hopefully we
learn more from Councilman Ramen about what it was that
(12:07):
really got her into the race. She did address that
a bit after filing. Not a whole lot of depth
to that yet, but she did talk a bit about
that La Times report from earlier in the week, suggesting
that Mayor Bass is the one who directed all of
those edits, the watering down, if you will, of the
Palisades fire after action report produced by the LA Fire Department.
(12:32):
The Mayor denies that she had anything to do with
those revisions, but counsel Woman Ramen was asked, what were
your thoughts. Keep in mind, this was the report that
nearly got developer Rick Caruso to reconsider running. He had
said he wasn't gonna run. Then this report comes out
and he gets everybody all excited, I might get back
in this thing. Let me think about it. A day
(12:53):
later he says he's not going to do it. But
this is what counsel Woman Ramen said.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
You know, I think that the Palisades fire and everything
surrounding that moment requires openness, honesty, and accountability to the public.
And I think the report that I read was the
series of many instances where the city hasn't delivered that
for the public. And it's not just on that issue,
although that was the most dramatic, the most impactful that
(13:20):
we've had in so long, the biggest disaster that we've faced,
But I think we need to do that on the
fire and on everything else.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That we're responsible for, everything else that we're responsible for.
Pay attention to that part, because, again, as I noted
just moments ago, there's not a lot of idiological daylight
between Mayor Bass and Councilwoman Ramen. Politically they believe exactly
the same thing, just about if it's a two woman race.
(13:50):
It's not yet, but if it becomes one, they will
have to differentiate themselves on processes, how to fix bureaucracy,
how to better manage departments, how to better deliver services.
Council one Ramen was asked shortly after filing about homelessness.
(14:14):
Homelessness obviously one of the top issues in the city,
maybe now at this point behind the recovery in the Palisades,
but citywide, it's homelessness. It's everywhere. And Mayor Bass ran
on this four years ago that she was going to
fix it. After getting elected. She creates this inside Safe
program that has cost a lot of money on top
of the lot of money we spend in other ways
(14:37):
to support homelessness, billions of dollars and really very little
to show for it. But Maribas has been touting that
street homelessness, people living on the streets, has trickled down
over the past couple of years. Those numbers have been disputed,
but Councilwoman Ramen is the chairperson of the La City
Council's Homeless Committee. Here's what she said.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
I believe in encampment resolution. That's how Inside Safe works.
You go to an encampment, you offer housing and services
with dignity and with honesty to everyone there. And people
are able to move indoors and entire encampments can come
in that We've done that in my district over and
over again, both before inside Safe existed and afterwards. Encampment
(15:24):
resolution is an important intervention, but we need to make
sure that the costs are appropriate for the city. There
are ways to reduce the cost to make this a
program that is fiscally sustainable, and that is part of
our homelessness response.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
The cost. She's highlighting the cost there. That may be
another area where she can separate ideology and process. Mayerbass
has a program, there are maybe not enough for seats
that we would like to see from it. Well, we
have a general idea of how much it's cost and
(15:58):
how many people are off the street because of it,
and it's not a lot relatively comparatively. So what the
councilman seems to be saying there is I also want
to address homelessness, but it should the cause should better managed.
(16:18):
Of course, she's been on the city council. This is
the second year of her second term, so more than
five years she's been at city Hall. Two remember Mayor
Baths and Councilman Ramen are buds I remind you of
what we just heard in the previous segment. When Councilman
(16:40):
Ramen was running for reelection in twenty twenty four, Maybas
said these things.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
She is a perfect example of how elected officion should
be starting from the grassroots. They motivated because of the
very specific problem and working to solve that problem. Before
she hadn't even thought.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
About running for roubles a ringing endorsement, a literal endorsement
for councilmen ram and running for mayor. So the councilwoman
was asked after filing, what's up with you in the mayor.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yes, Mayor Bass is someone I have deep, deep respect for.
She and I share so many values about what matters
for Los Angeles, what matters right now, and we've worked
together successfully on many of those things. But I do
feel like Angelino's have really given us a lot of faith.
Voted for more taxes, to address affordable housing issues, to
(17:33):
address homelessness, to address some of our biggest crises, and
if we don't show results to them, I think we
will lose them. And I want to deliver a government
that is going to be truly accountable to the people
and really lift up the values that Angelina's whole dear
iping to the mayor. I have spoken to the mayor.
(17:54):
I've spell about that, you know, I yeah, sure, you know.
I have a strong and close relationship with the mayor
that I built over her last years in office, and
I would prefer to maintaining that privacy right now. But
I have spoken to her.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
They've spoken. I can only imagine how that call went. Hey, friend,
coming for your job. It's going to be an interesting
four months, that is for sure. Counciloman Ramen produced a
video earlier this week that did get my spidy since
is going because she ended the video by saying, I
(18:33):
have such a big dreams for la and I thought, okay,
interesting big aspirations. But the focus of the video was
the street lights in the city. We've talked about it
a lot on this program and on this station over
all on the news that the street lights are out
all over the city. The primary cause, as we've reported,
it's been people stealing copper wire. So she puts out
(18:55):
this video saying I've got a plan. I've got a
plan to get the lights by guess what it is,
raising your taxes. We'll get into that next. As Michael
Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Coming up at the top of next hour, Tech executive
Adam Miller, who was announced to candidacy for mayor of
Los Angeles, will join us. So if you don't have
any idea who he is, he's here to tell you
exactly that. But first, we've been talking about the surprise
(19:33):
entry of city council Woman Nithia Rahmen into the mayor's
race to challenge her longtime friend and political ally Karen Bass.
Earlier in the week, Councilwoman Ramen put out a social
media video that was focusing on street lights in Los Angeles.
And you've heard me talk about this on this program,
You've heard me talk about it on the weekday programs
(19:54):
and in the newscast. LA is a widespread problem with
its street lights. Thousands of them are out. The city
has tried to create various task force involving going after
people who's still the copper wire or do other vandalism
to these things, but it's mostly copper wire theft. Councilwoman
(20:17):
Ramen highlights this in this video, and here is her
explanation of the situation. The city is facing.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
City of Los Angeles maintains two hundred and twenty thousand
street lights that cover two thirds of the city. Today,
thousands of these street lights are dark. Repair times have
now increased for broken streetlights to more than nine months,
even up to a year. That's an absurd amount of time.
A Nithier raman council member for the fourth district here
in the City of Los Angeles, let me shed some
much needed light on this issue. The most obvious reason
why so many of our lights are out an explosion
(20:47):
in vandalism and copper wire theft. Theft and vandalism went
from just nine incidents in two thousand and six to
four five hundred and thirty four and twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
What copper wire theft vandalism at streetlights? There were nine
incidents in two thousand and six, nine fifteen years later
more than four thousand, five hundred. That's a problem. That
(21:15):
is a problem. But the councilwoman says it's not just crime.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
And outages especially increased after the pandemic. Every one one
request for broken street lights went from sixteen thousand to
thirty two thousand in just the space of three years.
The copper wire theft is actually not the only reason
why our street lights are out after vandalism make up
about forty percent of our total autagues. The other sixty
percent of lights are out simply because they're old. In fact,
half of all of our led lights across the city
have already reached the end of their life, and some
(21:43):
of our polls are over a century old.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Okay, so it's an infrastructure issue. Also, apparently forty percent
of the cases are vandalism or theft, according to the councilwoman,
I have not confirmed those will have to take her
word for that for the purpose of this segment, But
she says the real reason the lights are not back
on is because the city and the city Council of
which she is a member, doesn't have the courage.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
The city could address both of these issues proactively with
a robust maintenance and fortification program, but so far it
is chosen not to fund that. Why, it turns out,
out of sheer political fear. Living in the dark does
not get us anywhere. Street Lights in La or funded
through something called a streetlighting assessments, where property owners are
charged an annual fee for the maintenance of street lights
in their vicinity. The city hasn't increased this assessment since
(22:29):
nineteen ninety six, when prop To eighteen was passed, requiring
public approval of all assessment increases. No politician wanted to
push for an increase in assessment fees, especially one that
fell primarily on single family homeowners who reliably voted in
local elections.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
No one has the courage since nineteen ninety six to
raise the assessment fee. I hope you caught the way
that street lights are funded here in Los Angeles, she says.
It's an assessment on property owners. And there are various
street lighting districts all across the city of Los Angeles.
There are many, many of them. They pop up on
the city Council agenda nearly every week as part of
(23:06):
balk items that they do these votes for. They're not controversial,
it's just very technical such and such street lighting district.
As your city hall guy here at KFIS, I see
it all the time. There's a ton of street light
districts and they're funded through property assessments. But the city
(23:29):
is also broke. It doesn't have money to do anything
much less help us see as we walk down these
scary sidewalks.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
This means that the money collected from the assessment is
now only about a third of what's needed to maintain
infrastructure and make timely repairs. To make up for the
short flow from the assessment, the city has provided additional
funding from the general fund for street lighting, but this
funding was steadily stripped away during the city's periodic fiscal crises.
During the two thousand and eight recession, money for the
full replacement program was stripped from the budget and never
put back. This year, as La faced yet another budget crisis,
(24:01):
the city stopped funding for overtime in the department and
cut a lot of positions.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Okay, so we know that the city has budget problems
that affect every single department. She's outlined the ones that
affect the department that deals with street lights. So what
is the answer? I bet you can guess.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Given the city's fiscal situation, the only pass forward is
to update the assessment fee to one that will cover
the cost to maintain this system. A new assessment can
also fund proactive fortification of street lights, which has a
ninety percent success rate in preventing copper wire effect but
we need to provide the public real accountability, including publicly
reported metrics on all outages and repair of.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Times, update the assessment fee. You have to give the
council woman credit is it's never easy for any politician
to stand before you and say, let's raise taxes. It
does seem easier in Los Angeles than other places because
they ask voters all the time to tax themselves more,
and voters do it all the time. But her suggestion
(24:55):
there is we need to update the assessment fee, in
other words, raise at tax that property owners play pay
across Los Angeles in order to have more money to
deal with these street lights. That may be a preview
for the campaign. She's willing to say. You may not
like the suggestion, but she is willing to stand up
(25:17):
and say we have to pay more as property owners
residents in order to get our street lights back on.
I have to say it's worth noting that nowhere in
that video was there a mention of going after the
criminals who knocked out, according to her, forty percent of
the street lights. She did mention she wants to make
(25:41):
the repaired street lights more impenetrable, but she didn't say
anything about going after the criminals that have left so
much of Los Angeles in the dark four months to goo.
We'll hear a lot more from those candidates again. Candidate
Adam Miller, if you don't know who he is, He's
a former tech executive. He's involved in homelessness now here
(26:01):
in Los Angeles and he is going to join us
at the top of the next hour, so stay tuned
for that. But up next, this terrible tragedy in Westwood.
A driver hits a cyclist and then crashes into a
grocery store, killing three people injuring others. There was apparently
a plan at LA City Hall to improve safety for cyclist,
(26:25):
pedestrians and drivers on Westwood Boulevard where this happened, but
it has been held up in bureaucracy. We'll hear from
the council person representing that area. As Michael Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We'll finish up this hour and then we have another
hour ahead. Will be joined by Adam Miller, the former
tech exec who is now working in homelessness and now
running for Los Angeles. Mary joins us at the top
of the next hour, do not miss that will also
be joined by our Heather Brooker from KFI News to
(27:09):
talk about what vertical shorts are and why they matter
to you. Seriously. This is something that the City of
Los Angeles is looking to create a multimillion dollar fund
to support because they think it is the next wave
of entertainment in this very struggling Hollywood industry here. So
that's all coming up in the next hour. If you
missed any of our conversation over the past hour about
(27:31):
the shakeup in the LA Mayor's race with a sitting
city council member who is a longtime friend and ally
of incumbent Mayor mass deciding to run against her, look
us up at KFIAM sixty dot com under Michael Monks Reports,
or find that on the iHeartRadio app and listen to
that at your leisure. In our previous segment, we talked
(27:52):
about street lights and the difficulty with getting them turned
back on because of so much thievery, so much vandalism,
and so little money at city Hall. That's not the
only problem facing Los Angeles, and it's not only the
I'm sorry, it's not the only self inflicted wound. Bureaucracy
at La City Hall slows down just about every single
thing you can imagine. It's not just that they're broke,
(28:15):
they just don't have good processes. And according to one
city council member, we learned the hard way about that
this week. Imagine being at the ninety nine Ranch Market
on Westwood Boulevard buying bread or donuts, and suddenly a
(28:36):
car crashes through it. We see cars crash through buildings.
It happens too often, but the video can often be
dramatic to watch, but we can watch it because nobody's
hurt or dead. This was different. A woman driving on
Westwood Boulevard first hits a cyclist and then drives into
(29:01):
this grocery store and kills three people. Others injured. Terribly, horrible,
horrible story. And that happened on Thursday. But then on
Friday at La City Hall they always adjourn their meetings
and memory of someone. It may be someone we all know,
(29:21):
or it may just be somebody from a particular councilperson's district.
On Friday, they adjourned in memory of the folks killed
at that grocery store and Councilman Katie Rslavsky also use
that occasion to criticize city hall bureaucracy.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Not an accident When our streets are designed in a
way where one moment of error turns into a mass
casualty event, that's a failure of our system to protect
the public. I know all of our constituents are asking
a basic question of us right now. Why does it
feel like safety improvements take forever, even after we know
where the risks are.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
That is a difficult statement to hear from a sitting
city council woman, especially in a city that has already
sued the brink of bankruptcy for a variety of infrastructure failures,
to basically say it wasn't an accident when our own
policies prevent us from increasing safety on the roads. So
(30:21):
what exactly was she talking about? This was not a
generalized statement. It was specifically about this deadly crash on
Westwood Boulevard and a project on that part of Westwood Boulevard.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
We have a process underway to make Westwood Boulevard safer.
My office helps secure funding for this project because we
knew improvements were needed. This week in light of the
tragedy we reviewed ledut's timeline for the Westwood Bulevard Safety
to Mobility project. It shows years of scoping, planning, and
construction not expected until twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty
(30:57):
eight to begin.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That's not accept for.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
A safety project and one of the busiest corridors in
the city. And funding isn't enough if the delivery timeline
stretches into half a decade. And I know we all
have these projects in our own districts that were just
wishing would have been built ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
So she had secured the funding for safety improvements along
Westwood Boulevard to better protect cyclist, pedestrians, and drivers on
that stretch of Westwood Boulevard, and she says five years later,
construction hasn't even begun because there's so much community engagement
in planning and scoping that has to be done, and
(31:36):
so the safety improvement project has been held up by bureaucracy.
And three people are dead while shopping or working at
the ninety nine Ranch Market on Westwood Boulevard, she said it.
Councilwoman Yarslovsky said, it not an accident. When we are
not able to get these projects out the door, we.
Speaker 6 (31:59):
Can have meaningful community engagement and still move faster. So today, colleagues,
I'm calling on La DOOT to return with an accelerated
timeline for Westwood Boulevard, including immediate, quick build safety measures
while longer term work continues. We shouldn't be waiting years
for basic interventions while Angelino's die. And like I said,
this is not just about Westwood, of course, this is
(32:20):
about a citywide system that's too slow, too fragmented, and
too uncomfortable with delay. We're not moving in sync and
we're not moving with urgency to make our streets safer.
The result is that we patch problems instead of fixing them,
and we wait for tragedy before we act. We need
a clear accounting of what's slowing down safety projects across
Los Angeles, and we need a plan to fix it
(32:42):
that includes all of the speed cameras that are somewhere
in dot. San Francisco's A had their program up now
for almost a year. We should be doing the same.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
That is council Woman Katie or Aslovsky saying it's time
for the LA Department of Transportation to explain why it
takes so long to getting thing done. She says that
she has a project funded and has taken years to
get it out the door to improve Westwood Boulevard where
this terrible tragedy happened. We do have another hour of
(33:17):
Michael Monks reports ahead. I want to let you know,
if you've been hot lately, that southern California winter is
finally on its way back to us. I am understanding
not a mediurologist, but those who are are saying that
this weekend is the last of the eighties for a while.
(33:39):
We may get close to it as Monday goes on.
We may get close, but then those temperatures are finally
going to plunge back to where I like it to
be really all year, but definitely in January and February.
It's been too hot lately. We're seeing close to eighty
on Monday, but then mid sixties, upper sixties, hovering right
(34:03):
around seventy for most of next week, and then even
colder as we get into the following week. That's great
news for those of us who like to wear sweaters
and jackets. It has been a long stretch of eighties.
It's supposed to be winter here. It was fun to
(34:25):
dump on all of our friends and family who live eastward,
they've been buried in snow. I talked to my mom
last week on video phone from the rooftop with my
sunglasses on, sipping my coffee and looking at the mountains
in the city skyline and thinking this is perfect. And
it was literally zero degrees back home. You can't beat that.
(34:46):
But now that winter that has been terrorizing all of
our friends eastward, it is making its way back to us,
our version of it. Anyway. We won't be buried in
any snow, thank goodness. But it is going to get colder,
and all of the temperatures eastward look to be above normal.
That'll be fun. Get your jackets back out. I hope
(35:08):
you did not put them away. Summer has not come yet,
winter has returned. I hope you enjoy it. If you
can't stay with us for the next hour, do look
it up on the podcast at KFI AM six forty
dot com or on the iHeartRadio app. Just look for
Michael Monk's reports. We will be talking to Adam Miller,
the former tech exec and now operator of a homeless
(35:29):
related organization. He's running for mayor of Los Angeles. You
don't know his name. I asked him to tell you
who he is and why he decided to jump into
this race. And we'll also talk about that special fund
that LA City Hall is looking to create for the
creators of those little TikTok TV shows. They say it's
a big time growing industry in Los Angeles. Is already
(35:49):
struggling to keep Hollywood here. Let's not lose out on
this burgeoning part of the industry. That's all ahead on
the next hour of Michael Monk's Reports right here on
KFI A M six forty k.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
F I A M six forty on demand.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
M hmm
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've got the next couple of hours together. Happy weekend
to you, a big weekend. Indeed, hope everyone has exciting
plans for the big game or just some time to relax,
because it has been a whirlwind of a week on
the news and politics front here in Los Angeles. Saturday noon,
(00:29):
that is the deadline to file for mayor, and with
the departure of Rick Caruso, the developer here in Los
Angeles from that race, deciding not to seek a re
election bid against incombent Mayor Bass, there seemed to be
an opening for a well funded, well connected alternative to
(00:51):
the mayor, and so all of us in the news biz,
all of us in politics, and really a lot of
us in the public are looking around wondering who could
it be? Could it be Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, who had
flirted for several weeks with possibly getting into this race
(01:12):
and Donna and had done a couple of things that
lent credence to the suspicion. She moved from West Hollywood,
where she was the mayor. She's the county supervisor now,
so she doesn't have to live in the city of LA.
But she lived in West Hollywood, where she served as mayor,
and previously moved into the city limits of Los Angeles,
(01:32):
and then very recently she opened up a new social
media account that just said Lindsay for La, not LA Supervisor,
not Eli Mayor, Lindsay for LA. It looked like she
was going to do it, that she was going to
get in this race. The whole field had shifted. There
(01:56):
was an opening for somebody, but Supervisor Horvat announced early
Saturday morning, just hours before the deadline.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I know right now there's a lot ahead of us,
and it's clear you want a different kind of leadership
and you're ready to see change in your city. And
I am excited to work with you on that. It's
why you elected me to be your Los Angeles County Supervisor,
and so I know that work is not yet finished.
So I am choosing not to run for mayor and
(02:26):
instead to focus on my reelection for Los Angeles County Supervisor.
Not because I'm stepping away from a challenge, I'm stepping
even more into the one we've already started.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So Supervisor Horrorvath has decided not to run for Los
Angeles mayor and instead will run for re election as
a supervisor. And here's the other thing that you know
we've been talking about here on KFI is that there
may be a better job available, not just to Supervisor Horrorvath,
but to any politician in Los Angeles County, and that
(02:55):
is this new LA County Chief Executive. Of course, the
LA County CEO position already exists, but that person is
appointed by the supervisors. But because voters in La County
approved a ballot measure in November of twenty four, that's
going to change. The CEO will be elected. We're basically
talking about a county mayor, possibly a juicier position than
(03:19):
the city mayor. You will see a lot of people
falling all over themselves to get into that race. Maybe
that's why someone like where Caruso is sitting on the sidelines.
Maybe he sees an opportunity to do the whole county thing.
Supervisor Horvath pushed for the ballot measure to make that happen.
Could be an opportunity for her in a couple of years,
but it's clear now with her announcement, and with the
(03:39):
deadline passing that Supervisor Horvath is not going to be
a candidate for mayor, So where did that leave us?
There really wasn't any major speculation about another major candidate
jumping into challenge mayor paths. Was it just going to
be mayor Bass facing reality TV personality and Palisades Fire
(04:03):
survivor and activist Spencer Pratt, tech executive Adam Miller, and
Democratic Socialist community organizer Ray Hang seemed like a pretty
favorable field for a mayor who looked politically dead this
time last year. But then at the buzzer, another candidate
(04:30):
swoops in, and not a nobody city councilman, excuse me,
city council woman Nythia Ramen has jumped in the race
for Los Angeles mayor. Now she's not somebody on council
who antagonizes the mayor their allies. In fact, listen to
(04:51):
one LA residence enthusiasm about Nythia Ramen.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
She is a.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Perfect example of how elected officient should.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Be, starting from the grassroots, being motivated because of the
very specific problem and working to solve that problem before
she ever even thought about running the hooks and so
send her assent the council officer and now cheering your
committee on housing to homelessness.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
We tell that we have a dedicated individual and.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
I need her to be re elected to work alongside
of me to look in homelessness.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
In Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That was Mayor Karen Bass in twenty twenty four, endorsing
the reelection bid of one councilwoman at the O Raman.
These two were peas in a pod not that long ago.
Their idiologically inseparable in many ways. What motivated Councilwoman Ramen
(05:57):
to jump in this race to challenge her long time
ally Karen Bass? And what does this field of candidates
mean for you, the electorate within the city of Los
Angeles and all of you with an earshot of this
radio station. Because as goes La, so goes Southern California.
That's the real shame of it all. Because LA is
(06:18):
not in great shape right now, and it bleeds out,
it bleeds over. I should say, if LA is not
attracting big business, if it's signature industries like Hollywood are fading,
all of that trickles out into the surrounding communities. Fewer
people moving here, fewer people shopping here, fewer people visiting here,
(06:43):
and I'm comfortable in saying LA is not in great
shape and it is in need of a shot in
the arm. And whether that comes from a re elected
Karen Bass or Council of Minnitia Rahmen, or or one of
the other candidates, we've got about four months to figure out.
The primary election is in June. I'm sure most of
(07:04):
you know. But the way it works in primaries in
California for this type of office is the top two
vote getters will advance from this field. But if one
candidate gets fifty percent plus one vote, they win in
the primary. There is no general election. I think one
thing that this guarantees is that the primary won't be
(07:28):
enough to decide the race. Could be wrong. Well, have
to see out all unfolds and whether these newer candidates,
and I say newer in terms of their familiarity with
voters or voters familiarity with them, how strong, how robust
their campaigns are. But it looks like right now it's
(07:48):
safe to say that the front runners are Mayor Bass
and Councilwoman Ramen. But what a whirlwind of a week
for Mayor Bass. We get the terrible news that former
LA School Superintendent Austin Buner has left the race. And
that's not to say that his candidacy was important to us.
(08:09):
It's the reason that he had to stop his candidacy
because of his the unexpected death of his twenty two
year old daughter early last month, a terrible tragedy surrounding that.
We don't know all the details on that yet, but
he looked like he was prepared to run a serious campaign.
Could he have won? Probably, would he have? Who knows?
(08:29):
But he drops out of the race, and then the
La Times comes out with this damning report alleging that
Mayor Bass is the one who ordered all of those
edits to the after action report of the Palisades fire
that was produced by the LA Fire Department. We already
knew that it had been edited thanks to reporting from
(08:50):
the La Times, but we didn't know who did it,
And citing sources, the La Times says it was the mayor,
who denies that. That got Rick Caruso thinking, yeah, I
lost to her four years ago. I was thinking about
running this time. I already said I would not, but
now I'm thinking about it again because of that report,
so damning, I might get back in this thing, and
(09:11):
then he decides, no, I won't. And then Supervisor Horvath
is floating out there and she might challenge, and this
morning she says no. I mean, it almost looks like
Mayor Bass had the dream field for someone as embattled
as she has been since the fire in the Palisades
last year. But then this surprise, Councilwoman Ramen entering the race.
(09:35):
This will not be a cake walk after all for
the mayor. It may not have been anyway. We may
learn a lot more from Spencer Pratt, we may learn
a lot more from Adam Miller. We may learn a
lot more from Ray Wang. They're unproven politicians at this point,
but council Woman Ramen is not. She's twice elected to
the La City Council. So what did she have to
(09:56):
say about why she got in the race and what
did she say about her relaseationship with Mayor Bass? This morning,
after filing for office, we'll hear from newly announced mayoral candidate,
Councilwoman Nthia Ramen. When Michael Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you for the next couple of hours. Want
to let you know coming up at the top of
the next hour, we'll be joined by Adam Miller. Who's
Adam Miller? You wonder, well, that's what I asked him.
He's running for mayor of Los Angeles. He'll be with
us at the very top of the next hour, and
you will know who Adam Miller is. He's not just
(10:42):
running against Mayor Bass though. Councilwoman Nythia Ramen a surprise,
last minute late entry into the field and as she
filed the paperwork just as the clock was about to expire.
This is part of what she had to say.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Los Angeles needs a mayor who is going to take
responsibility for the whole system. Who is going to demand
accountability across departments, who is going to prepare for emergencies
before they happen. Who's going to communicate honestly when things
go wrong and fix what fails. Los Angeles needs a
mayor who will fight for more housing, for more affordability.
This is the only way that we are going to
(11:24):
keep this a city of opportunity. We need a mayor
who is determined to pave our streets and keep us
safe and keep the street lights on. This is a
city of extraordinary possibility, extraordinary, but possibility only matters if
our leadership is accountable for delivering it. And I'm ready
to leave the city with seriousness, accountability, urgency, and ambition
(11:44):
that is equal to this moment.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's at least city council woman, just moments after filing
to run for mayor of Los Angeles against her one
time close friend, Mayor Bass, did not notice that there
was some sort of rift brewing between them. Hopefully we
learn more from Councilman Ramen about what it was that
(12:07):
really got her into the race. She did address that
a bit after filing. Not a whole lot of depth
to that yet, but she did talk a bit about
that La Times report from earlier in the week, suggesting
that Mayor Bass is the one who directed all of
those edits, the watering down, if you will, of the
Palisades fire after action report produced by the LA Fire Department.
(12:32):
The Mayor denies that she had anything to do with
those revisions, but counsel Woman Ramen was asked, what were
your thoughts. Keep in mind, this was the report that
nearly got developer Rick Caruso to reconsider running. He had
said he wasn't gonna run. Then this report comes out
and he gets everybody all excited, I might get back
in this thing. Let me think about it. A day
(12:53):
later he says he's not going to do it. But
this is what counsel Woman Ramen said.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
You know, I think that the Palisades fire and everything
surrounding that moment requires openness, honesty, and accountability to the public.
And I think the report that I read was the
series of many instances where the city hasn't delivered that
for the public. And it's not just on that issue,
although that was the most dramatic, the most impactful that
(13:20):
we've had in so long, the biggest disaster that we've faced,
But I think we need to do that on the
fire and on everything else.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That we're responsible for, everything else that we're responsible for.
Pay attention to that part, because, again, as I noted
just moments ago, there's not a lot of idiological daylight
between Mayor Bass and Councilwoman Ramen. Politically they believe exactly
the same thing, just about if it's a two woman race.
(13:50):
It's not yet, but if it becomes one, they will
have to differentiate themselves on processes, how to fix bureaucracy,
how to better manage departments, how to better deliver services.
Council one Ramen was asked shortly after filing about homelessness.
(14:14):
Homelessness obviously one of the top issues in the city,
maybe now at this point behind the recovery in the Palisades,
but citywide, it's homelessness. It's everywhere. And Mayor Bass ran
on this four years ago that she was going to
fix it. After getting elected. She creates this inside Safe
program that has cost a lot of money on top
of the lot of money we spend in other ways
(14:37):
to support homelessness, billions of dollars and really very little
to show for it. But Maribas has been touting that
street homelessness, people living on the streets, has trickled down
over the past couple of years. Those numbers have been disputed,
but Councilwoman Ramen is the chairperson of the La City
Council's Homeless Committee. Here's what she said.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
I believe in encampment resolution. That's how Inside Safe works.
You go to an encampment, you offer housing and services
with dignity and with honesty to everyone there. And people
are able to move indoors and entire encampments can come
in that We've done that in my district over and
over again, both before inside Safe existed and afterwards. Encampment
(15:24):
resolution is an important intervention, but we need to make
sure that the costs are appropriate for the city. There
are ways to reduce the cost to make this a
program that is fiscally sustainable, and that is part of
our homelessness response.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
The cost. She's highlighting the cost there. That may be
another area where she can separate ideology and process. Mayerbass
has a program, there are maybe not enough for seats
that we would like to see from it. Well, we
have a general idea of how much it's cost and
(15:58):
how many people are off the street because of it,
and it's not a lot relatively comparatively. So what the
councilman seems to be saying there is I also want
to address homelessness, but it should the cause should better managed.
(16:18):
Of course, she's been on the city council. This is
the second year of her second term, so more than
five years she's been at city Hall. Two remember Mayor
Baths and Councilman Ramen are buds I remind you of
what we just heard in the previous segment. When Councilman
(16:40):
Ramen was running for reelection in twenty twenty four, Maybas
said these things.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
She is a perfect example of how elected officion should
be starting from the grassroots. They motivated because of the
very specific problem and working to solve that problem. Before
she hadn't even thought.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
About running for roubles a ringing endorsement, a literal endorsement
for councilmen ram and running for mayor. So the councilwoman
was asked after filing, what's up with you in the mayor.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yes, Mayor Bass is someone I have deep, deep respect for.
She and I share so many values about what matters
for Los Angeles, what matters right now, and we've worked
together successfully on many of those things. But I do
feel like Angelino's have really given us a lot of faith.
Voted for more taxes, to address affordable housing issues, to
(17:33):
address homelessness, to address some of our biggest crises, and
if we don't show results to them, I think we
will lose them. And I want to deliver a government
that is going to be truly accountable to the people
and really lift up the values that Angelina's whole dear
iping to the mayor. I have spoken to the mayor.
(17:54):
I've spell about that, you know, I yeah, sure, you know.
I have a strong and close relationship with the mayor
that I built over her last years in office, and
I would prefer to maintaining that privacy right now. But
I have spoken to her.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
They've spoken. I can only imagine how that call went. Hey, friend,
coming for your job. It's going to be an interesting
four months, that is for sure. Counciloman Ramen produced a
video earlier this week that did get my spidy since
is going because she ended the video by saying, I
(18:33):
have such a big dreams for la and I thought, okay,
interesting big aspirations. But the focus of the video was
the street lights in the city. We've talked about it
a lot on this program and on this station over
all on the news that the street lights are out
all over the city. The primary cause, as we've reported,
it's been people stealing copper wire. So she puts out
(18:55):
this video saying I've got a plan. I've got a
plan to get the lights by guess what it is,
raising your taxes. We'll get into that next. As Michael
Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Coming up at the top of next hour, Tech executive
Adam Miller, who was announced to candidacy for mayor of
Los Angeles, will join us. So if you don't have
any idea who he is, he's here to tell you
exactly that. But first, we've been talking about the surprise
(19:33):
entry of city council Woman Nithia Rahmen into the mayor's
race to challenge her longtime friend and political ally Karen Bass.
Earlier in the week, Councilwoman Ramen put out a social
media video that was focusing on street lights in Los Angeles.
And you've heard me talk about this on this program,
You've heard me talk about it on the weekday programs
(19:54):
and in the newscast. LA is a widespread problem with
its street lights. Thousands of them are out. The city
has tried to create various task force involving going after
people who's still the copper wire or do other vandalism
to these things, but it's mostly copper wire theft. Councilwoman
(20:17):
Ramen highlights this in this video, and here is her
explanation of the situation. The city is facing.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
City of Los Angeles maintains two hundred and twenty thousand
street lights that cover two thirds of the city. Today,
thousands of these street lights are dark. Repair times have
now increased for broken streetlights to more than nine months,
even up to a year. That's an absurd amount of time.
A Nithier raman council member for the fourth district here
in the City of Los Angeles, let me shed some
much needed light on this issue. The most obvious reason
why so many of our lights are out an explosion
(20:47):
in vandalism and copper wire theft. Theft and vandalism went
from just nine incidents in two thousand and six to
four five hundred and thirty four and twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
What copper wire theft vandalism at streetlights? There were nine
incidents in two thousand and six, nine fifteen years later
more than four thousand, five hundred. That's a problem. That
(21:15):
is a problem. But the councilwoman says it's not just crime.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
And outages especially increased after the pandemic. Every one one
request for broken street lights went from sixteen thousand to
thirty two thousand in just the space of three years.
The copper wire theft is actually not the only reason
why our street lights are out after vandalism make up
about forty percent of our total autagues. The other sixty
percent of lights are out simply because they're old. In fact,
half of all of our led lights across the city
have already reached the end of their life, and some
(21:43):
of our polls are over a century old.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Okay, so it's an infrastructure issue. Also, apparently forty percent
of the cases are vandalism or theft, according to the councilwoman,
I have not confirmed those will have to take her
word for that for the purpose of this segment, But
she says the real reason the lights are not back
on is because the city and the city Council of
which she is a member, doesn't have the courage.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
The city could address both of these issues proactively with
a robust maintenance and fortification program, but so far it
is chosen not to fund that. Why, it turns out,
out of sheer political fear. Living in the dark does
not get us anywhere. Street Lights in La or funded
through something called a streetlighting assessments, where property owners are
charged an annual fee for the maintenance of street lights
in their vicinity. The city hasn't increased this assessment since
(22:29):
nineteen ninety six, when prop To eighteen was passed, requiring
public approval of all assessment increases. No politician wanted to
push for an increase in assessment fees, especially one that
fell primarily on single family homeowners who reliably voted in
local elections.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
No one has the courage since nineteen ninety six to
raise the assessment fee. I hope you caught the way
that street lights are funded here in Los Angeles, she says.
It's an assessment on property owners. And there are various
street lighting districts all across the city of Los Angeles.
There are many, many of them. They pop up on
the city Council agenda nearly every week as part of
(23:06):
balk items that they do these votes for. They're not controversial,
it's just very technical such and such street lighting district.
As your city hall guy here at KFIS, I see
it all the time. There's a ton of street light
districts and they're funded through property assessments. But the city
(23:29):
is also broke. It doesn't have money to do anything
much less help us see as we walk down these
scary sidewalks.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
This means that the money collected from the assessment is
now only about a third of what's needed to maintain
infrastructure and make timely repairs. To make up for the
short flow from the assessment, the city has provided additional
funding from the general fund for street lighting, but this
funding was steadily stripped away during the city's periodic fiscal crises.
During the two thousand and eight recession, money for the
full replacement program was stripped from the budget and never
put back. This year, as La faced yet another budget crisis,
(24:01):
the city stopped funding for overtime in the department and
cut a lot of positions.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Okay, so we know that the city has budget problems
that affect every single department. She's outlined the ones that
affect the department that deals with street lights. So what
is the answer? I bet you can guess.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Given the city's fiscal situation, the only pass forward is
to update the assessment fee to one that will cover
the cost to maintain this system. A new assessment can
also fund proactive fortification of street lights, which has a
ninety percent success rate in preventing copper wire effect but
we need to provide the public real accountability, including publicly
reported metrics on all outages and repair of.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Times, update the assessment fee. You have to give the
council woman credit is it's never easy for any politician
to stand before you and say, let's raise taxes. It
does seem easier in Los Angeles than other places because
they ask voters all the time to tax themselves more,
and voters do it all the time. But her suggestion
(24:55):
there is we need to update the assessment fee, in
other words, raise at tax that property owners play pay
across Los Angeles in order to have more money to
deal with these street lights. That may be a preview
for the campaign. She's willing to say. You may not
like the suggestion, but she is willing to stand up
(25:17):
and say we have to pay more as property owners
residents in order to get our street lights back on.
I have to say it's worth noting that nowhere in
that video was there a mention of going after the
criminals who knocked out, according to her, forty percent of
the street lights. She did mention she wants to make
(25:41):
the repaired street lights more impenetrable, but she didn't say
anything about going after the criminals that have left so
much of Los Angeles in the dark four months to goo.
We'll hear a lot more from those candidates again. Candidate
Adam Miller, if you don't know who he is, He's
a former tech executive. He's involved in homelessness now here
(26:01):
in Los Angeles and he is going to join us
at the top of the next hour, so stay tuned
for that. But up next, this terrible tragedy in Westwood.
A driver hits a cyclist and then crashes into a
grocery store, killing three people injuring others. There was apparently
a plan at LA City Hall to improve safety for cyclist,
(26:25):
pedestrians and drivers on Westwood Boulevard where this happened, but
it has been held up in bureaucracy. We'll hear from
the council person representing that area. As Michael Monks Reports continues.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We'll finish up this hour and then we have another
hour ahead. Will be joined by Adam Miller, the former
tech exec who is now working in homelessness and now
running for Los Angeles. Mary joins us at the top
of the next hour, do not miss that will also
be joined by our Heather Brooker from KFI News to
(27:09):
talk about what vertical shorts are and why they matter
to you. Seriously. This is something that the City of
Los Angeles is looking to create a multimillion dollar fund
to support because they think it is the next wave
of entertainment in this very struggling Hollywood industry here. So
that's all coming up in the next hour. If you
missed any of our conversation over the past hour about
(27:31):
the shakeup in the LA Mayor's race with a sitting
city council member who is a longtime friend and ally
of incumbent Mayor mass deciding to run against her, look
us up at KFIAM sixty dot com under Michael Monks Reports,
or find that on the iHeartRadio app and listen to
that at your leisure. In our previous segment, we talked
(27:52):
about street lights and the difficulty with getting them turned
back on because of so much thievery, so much vandalism,
and so little money at city Hall. That's not the
only problem facing Los Angeles, and it's not only the
I'm sorry, it's not the only self inflicted wound. Bureaucracy
at La City Hall slows down just about every single
thing you can imagine. It's not just that they're broke,
(28:15):
they just don't have good processes. And according to one
city council member, we learned the hard way about that
this week. Imagine being at the ninety nine Ranch Market
on Westwood Boulevard buying bread or donuts, and suddenly a
(28:36):
car crashes through it. We see cars crash through buildings.
It happens too often, but the video can often be
dramatic to watch, but we can watch it because nobody's
hurt or dead. This was different. A woman driving on
Westwood Boulevard first hits a cyclist and then drives into
(29:01):
this grocery store and kills three people. Others injured. Terribly, horrible,
horrible story. And that happened on Thursday. But then on
Friday at La City Hall they always adjourn their meetings
and memory of someone. It may be someone we all know,
(29:21):
or it may just be somebody from a particular councilperson's district.
On Friday, they adjourned in memory of the folks killed
at that grocery store and Councilman Katie Rslavsky also use
that occasion to criticize city hall bureaucracy.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Not an accident When our streets are designed in a
way where one moment of error turns into a mass
casualty event, that's a failure of our system to protect
the public. I know all of our constituents are asking
a basic question of us right now. Why does it
feel like safety improvements take forever, even after we know
where the risks are.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
That is a difficult statement to hear from a sitting
city council woman, especially in a city that has already
sued the brink of bankruptcy for a variety of infrastructure failures,
to basically say it wasn't an accident when our own
policies prevent us from increasing safety on the roads. So
(30:21):
what exactly was she talking about? This was not a
generalized statement. It was specifically about this deadly crash on
Westwood Boulevard and a project on that part of Westwood Boulevard.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
We have a process underway to make Westwood Boulevard safer.
My office helps secure funding for this project because we
knew improvements were needed. This week in light of the
tragedy we reviewed ledut's timeline for the Westwood Bulevard Safety
to Mobility project. It shows years of scoping, planning, and
construction not expected until twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty
(30:57):
eight to begin.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That's not accept for.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
A safety project and one of the busiest corridors in
the city. And funding isn't enough if the delivery timeline
stretches into half a decade. And I know we all
have these projects in our own districts that were just
wishing would have been built ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
So she had secured the funding for safety improvements along
Westwood Boulevard to better protect cyclist, pedestrians, and drivers on
that stretch of Westwood Boulevard, and she says five years later,
construction hasn't even begun because there's so much community engagement
in planning and scoping that has to be done, and
(31:36):
so the safety improvement project has been held up by bureaucracy.
And three people are dead while shopping or working at
the ninety nine Ranch Market on Westwood Boulevard, she said it.
Councilwoman Yarslovsky said, it not an accident. When we are
not able to get these projects out the door, we.
Speaker 6 (31:59):
Can have meaningful community engagement and still move faster. So today, colleagues,
I'm calling on La DOOT to return with an accelerated
timeline for Westwood Boulevard, including immediate, quick build safety measures
while longer term work continues. We shouldn't be waiting years
for basic interventions while Angelino's die. And like I said,
this is not just about Westwood, of course, this is
(32:20):
about a citywide system that's too slow, too fragmented, and
too uncomfortable with delay. We're not moving in sync and
we're not moving with urgency to make our streets safer.
The result is that we patch problems instead of fixing them,
and we wait for tragedy before we act. We need
a clear accounting of what's slowing down safety projects across
Los Angeles, and we need a plan to fix it
(32:42):
that includes all of the speed cameras that are somewhere
in dot. San Francisco's A had their program up now
for almost a year. We should be doing the same.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
That is council Woman Katie or Aslovsky saying it's time
for the LA Department of Transportation to explain why it
takes so long to getting thing done. She says that
she has a project funded and has taken years to
get it out the door to improve Westwood Boulevard where
this terrible tragedy happened. We do have another hour of
(33:17):
Michael Monks reports ahead. I want to let you know,
if you've been hot lately, that southern California winter is
finally on its way back to us. I am understanding
not a mediurologist, but those who are are saying that
this weekend is the last of the eighties for a while.
(33:39):
We may get close to it as Monday goes on.
We may get close, but then those temperatures are finally
going to plunge back to where I like it to
be really all year, but definitely in January and February.
It's been too hot lately. We're seeing close to eighty
on Monday, but then mid sixties, upper sixties, hovering right
(34:03):
around seventy for most of next week, and then even
colder as we get into the following week. That's great
news for those of us who like to wear sweaters
and jackets. It has been a long stretch of eighties.
It's supposed to be winter here. It was fun to
(34:25):
dump on all of our friends and family who live eastward,
they've been buried in snow. I talked to my mom
last week on video phone from the rooftop with my
sunglasses on, sipping my coffee and looking at the mountains
in the city skyline and thinking this is perfect. And
it was literally zero degrees back home. You can't beat that.
(34:46):
But now that winter that has been terrorizing all of
our friends eastward, it is making its way back to us,
our version of it. Anyway. We won't be buried in
any snow, thank goodness. But it is going to get colder,
and all of the temperatures eastward look to be above normal.
That'll be fun. Get your jackets back out. I hope
(35:08):
you did not put them away. Summer has not come yet,
winter has returned. I hope you enjoy it. If you
can't stay with us for the next hour, do look
it up on the podcast at KFI AM six forty
dot com or on the iHeartRadio app. Just look for
Michael Monk's reports. We will be talking to Adam Miller,
the former tech exec and now operator of a homeless
(35:29):
related organization. He's running for mayor of Los Angeles. You
don't know his name. I asked him to tell you
who he is and why he decided to jump into
this race. And we'll also talk about that special fund
that LA City Hall is looking to create for the
creators of those little TikTok TV shows. They say it's
a big time growing industry in Los Angeles. Is already
(35:49):
struggling to keep Hollywood here. Let's not lose out on
this burgeoning part of the industry. That's all ahead on
the next hour of Michael Monk's Reports right here on
KFI A M six forty k.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
F I A M six forty on demand.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
M hmm
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