@MicMonksReports: Fireworks, Housing, Wages, & The New Los Angeles Bank?

Michael Monks continues covering Fireworks, Housing, Wages, The Los Angeles Bank?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've got the next two hours together. I hope you're
having a nice Independence Day holiday weekend. It seems like
we had more warnings than ever about fireworks this year,
multiple government press conferences warning us that this time police

(00:26):
mean it. You will face penalties if you have illegal fireworks.
And it is a bit quieter this year, but I
don't know. Maybe that's because several community events were canceled
organizers blaming fears associated with federal immigration enforcement. We're gonna
have more on that next hour. But in my neck
of the woods, it sounded like a war zone.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Again.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm sure that's true in your neighborhood too. Near my home,
loud explosions. I can't get over the power of some
of these fireworks that make it to the streets. And
I love a block from skid Row. It just it
doesn't seem like the kind of place that has the
capital to acquire the pyrotechnics that I see and hear

(01:11):
outside my window all night and we get it all
year for some reason, but it's obviously particularly heavy on
July fourth, and it was. However, it has been a
bit rough, to say the least in California. Frankly, it
has been tragic here in southern California, with deadly explosions

(01:31):
in Semi Valley and Pacoima, and in Northern California deadly
warehouse explosion. The common denominator in all these cases fireworks,
in some cases illegal ones. This is what the news
has sounded like.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Just this week, we have one person that was injured
with significant injuries, was.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
Transported flames and gulfing a suburban neighborhood in La. Fireworks
going off fire, ripping through this homes roof as it
spread to others on the block right by your home.
More than one hundred firefighters called in to battle the inferno, Inputcoima,

(02:11):
crews arriving in minutes to find four homes on fire.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Obviously, people that are not trained to handle fireworks are
selling fireworks out of private residences, and we need to
change that culture, change it to one where folks go
see a professional show.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
Homeowners now working to board up their homes after the
devastating explosion. That they say felt like an earthquakes, how powerful,
how quickly this fire burned.

Speaker 6 (02:34):
And maybe not today we can fix it, but yeah,
they can't replace a life here and Pakoeima firefighters are
still walking through these homes assessing the.

Speaker 5 (02:44):
Damage and trying to figure out why those fireworks went off.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
This structure fire also was involving a significant amount of
fireworks that were being stored there, and these fireworks were
raining all upon the neighborhood. The fire stend it into
four different properties.

Speaker 7 (03:06):
Another massive fireworks explosion in California, just outside of Los Angeles,
a fireball filling the sky as fireworks rained down on
the neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
A woman in critical condition after.

Speaker 7 (03:16):
Fireworks inside a detached garage exploded, setting multiple homes on fire.
In Pacoima, over one hundred firefighters raising to the scene
as thick smoke filled the night air.

Speaker 8 (03:26):
Another fireworks explosion turned deadly in Simmy Valley, creating another
massive fireball and sending nearby residents running for cover, and
investigators believe the man killed in this blast was making
and distributing illegal fireworks from his garage.

Speaker 9 (03:41):
The man who died in the explosion and fire, a
man in his forties who lived here with his mother.

Speaker 8 (03:47):
Now.

Speaker 9 (03:47):
Neighbors tell us he was an extremely nice guy, always helpful,
but some tell us he was also making and selling
illegal fireworks.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
My wife said, hey, I just heard a huge explosion.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
And the house shook.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
She's like, I think we're having an earthquake.

Speaker 9 (04:09):
Investigators found the body of an adult male blown about
six feet out of the house by the first blast.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Oh well, it's a huge boom.

Speaker 10 (04:18):
She came right outside, and then as you ran in
the street, there's another boom and we could see what
was going on. So as few of us neighbors started
running towards the house, but another explosion came and so
we just backed away.

Speaker 11 (04:33):
Nine operators overwhelmed with calls from residents saying the blasts
shook their homes.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
I thought it was an earthquake.

Speaker 11 (04:40):
Authority say seven people are unaccounted for after this stunning
explosion at a California fireworks warehouse. Massive flames erupting over
and over Tuesday night in Yolo County, outside Sacramento, some
of those dangerous fireworks igniting.

Speaker 12 (04:56):
For three days. Families have the seven missing at the
fireworks storage been waiting for word on the fate of
their loved ones. Now. The Yellow County Corner reports human
remains have been found at the blast site, but no
positive identifications have been made yet. Cal Fire and the
ATF are investigating the fireworks explosions. It sent professional fireworks
shooting into the air for hours. Many were to be

(05:18):
used for community fireworks shows on the fourth of July.
Those firework shows have been canceled.

Speaker 13 (05:23):
There's just no excuse for that much to be in
one spot, especially out here in this area.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
This area is nothing but fire zone.

Speaker 13 (05:30):
It was insane. We saw roof parts coming off and out,
We saw the brie going everywhere. It was insane. We
thought we were being bombed, like war bombed. The way
it sounded. There was over two hours of just NonStop, NonStop.
It didn't stop. You just couldn't even hear anything because
it was just non stop going off and you could
see them in the air and everything.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
So I hope you've stayed safe and sane, and I
hope your cats and dogs didn't get too worked up.
We have a busy two hours despite the holiday. It
was a bit see week in news, and we're going
to recap all the big stuff. It is going to
be easier to build housing in California, according to the governor,
and a new bill that passed and was signed into law.

(06:12):
We're going to talk about what it means in a
state that really needs some new homes. And the fight
over the thirty dollars minimum wage for hotel and airport
workers in Los Angeles may be headed to the ballot.
And it got a little testy at LA City Hall
over this issue, and next hour, the city and County
of La are preparing for legal battles with the federal

(06:33):
government over immigration enforcement, and local officials are pleading with
the public to spend money at businesses that aren't doing
well because there aren't as many customers and there aren't
as many workers. Hollywood has been in a free fall
for years, strikes by the writers and the actors, COVID
and a business model that doesn't seem so sure of itself.

(06:55):
And here in the entertainment capital of the world, productions
have packed up for better incentives elsewhere. The state hopes
it can win them back with a new higher tax
credit pool. It's been signed into law. Tours of the
Pacific Palisades have drawn LOOKI lose to check out the
aftermath of January's wildfires, but LA City Hall has decided
to turn those buses around the Olympics in twenty twenty

(07:20):
eight sailing events. They were supposed to be in Long Beach,
but an LA City councilman got so mad about San
Pedro being boxed out he put up a big fight
and won. And a local mayor got surprised by his
fellow council members when they abruptly and unexpectedly removed him
from his office. Those stories and more. As we wrap

(07:42):
up this holiday weekend together and lift one up to
the folks who work even on the holidays and the weekends.
I'm right there with you. That's all ahead on Michael
Monks Reports on KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
KFI AMC live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is
Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News, going
to be with you on this holiday weekend. Governor Newsom
has signed into law a new budget and legislation he
says is groundbreaking and transformative for housing policy reforms. It
includes significant changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, known

(08:22):
as SEQUA. It's been criticized by housing advocates, who say
SEQUA has been misused as a weapon against building more housing.
Newsom says this law will boost housing production and infrastructure
all across California. He's so confident about the new bill
he thinks his future replacement will thank him.

Speaker 14 (08:41):
This is the stuff you know as former mayor, boy,
I only wish we had.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
By the way, as a future ex governor, you're welcome.

Speaker 14 (08:50):
To the next governor of California. Please remember that when
they announced record breaking housing starts into the future.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
And before we get into what the bill is supposed
to do, yere's how significant the governor views California's housing crisis.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
We've seen this abuse over and over again.

Speaker 14 (09:07):
We've fallen prey to litigation as a strategy, as delay
as a strategy, and as a consequence of all of that,
we have too much demand chasing too little suppli It's
not complicated. This is econ one oh one supply demand imbalance.
I've said it before, I'll repeat it. This issue of
housing explains more things, and more ways, and more days

(09:30):
than any other issue. To explain the challenges and the
plight of so many Californians. So many of the challenges
that ail us can be connected back to this issue.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Unless we address this issue head.

Speaker 14 (09:45):
On, will continue to be vexed by so many of
these challenges as it relates to the challenges of the
middle class and working folks, the issues of what's happening
on our streets, in sidewalks, all of these things are
foundationally and fundamentally connected.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
So that's why today is a big deal.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Now, you don't need me to tell you how expensive
stuff is here in California, but especially Holmes, whether you
want to buy or even if you just want to rent,
you don't need me to tell you the conditions of
many of our streets, not just the infrastructure, but also
the behavior and the activities on them. The governor says,
all of this is related to housing policy and the

(10:22):
burdensome regulations around it. Newsom has adopted the use of
the trendy new term abundance when it comes to policy.
There's a new book about it by journalists Ezra Kline
and Derek Thompson. That book profiled the California High Speed
Rail project as an example of how Democrat or liberal
policies are often well intentioned, but end up so burdened

(10:46):
by their own regulations they either turn out poorly or
don't turn out at all, or they just end up
as a money suck. The book pushes for what they
call an abundance agenda, where Democrats and liberal push for
policy reforms that result in goals like housing and infrastructure
actually being achieved. Newsome's own press release announcing this housing

(11:09):
policy actually calls it quote advancing an abundance agenda. Here's
what the Governor's office as it does. Sequel review processes
will be sped up on housing and infrastructure projects, including
housing and including high speed rail facilities, wildfire prevention, farm
worker housing, but it maintains its intended protections for the

(11:32):
environment and what they call sensitive lands. It promises to
speed up permits and approvals, freeze new building standards through
twenty thirty one. It mandates more oversight of local homeless
shelters by requiring annual inspections, and it doubles the renter's
tax credit. Here you'll hear the Governor's site nimby and yimby,

(11:53):
the not in my backyard crowd, and the yes in
my backyard crowd. Basically, the folks who don't want new
builds near them and the ones that do. And it
will also cite the Abundance Book.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
To the Nimby movement that's now being replaced by the
Yimbi movement. Go Yimbi's.

Speaker 14 (12:11):
Thank you for your abundant mindset. It's a plug to
Ezra and it really is about abundance and to the
movement that they represent, which I think was reflected in
the comments made a moment ago about getting big stuff done.
The world we invented has been competing against us. We

(12:32):
have got to perform and if we can't address this issue,
we're going to lose trust.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
And that's just the truth.

Speaker 14 (12:40):
And so this is so much bigger in many ways
than the issue itself. It is about the reputation of
not just Sacramento and legislative leadership and executive leadership, but
the reputation of the state of California. And so our
state of mind has been resolved.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
And analysis from the LA Time says quote the changes
wave sequa for just about any proposed low or mid
riise development in urban neighborhoods zoned for multi family housing.
No more thousand page studies of soils, the shadows the
buildings may cast and traffic they may bring, no more
risk of sequel lawsuits from angry neighbors. And meanwhile, there

(13:23):
appears to be fewer homeless people in some LA neighborhoods.
A new report from RAND Corporation, which is based in
Santa Monica, the number of homeless people on skid row
in Hollywood and in Venice is down fifteen percent. Its
cites increased interim and permanent housing programs as the reason.
The research has also found what they call rough sleeping,

(13:43):
being on the street without a tent or a makeshift shelter.
It's all little change. It's now the most common type
of homelessness in LA, with about forty percent of the
total population sleeping rough. Hollywood saw a forty nine percent
drop and Venice saul decline of twenty two percent. Skid
Row by itself actually saw an increase of nine percent.

(14:05):
And I can see that from my window. I can
tell you that's true. Brand as a research organization, they
say they do the largest count of homeless people in
LA outside of the annual government report. They found homeless
people who answered their survey tend to stay in the
same spot for shorter periods of time compared to previous years,
and they say this perhaps illustrates the effectiveness of homeless

(14:29):
can't removals. Up next, the fight over a thirty dollars
minimum wage for some hotel and airport workers in Los
Angeles may be headed to the ballot box, but supporters
and opponents are getting testy with each other, including members
of the LA City Council. And LA has had a
difficult couple of years managing its own money. Budget crises

(14:52):
after budget crises, so how well would it do operating
a municipal bank. Some LA City Council members want to
find out. They're putting their own office money into a
study of a possible public bank they say would save
the city millions of dollars and later. Certain bad words
are now officially banned at LA City Council meetings. Three

(15:13):
pizza places in southern California have made the Best in
the World list, And my interesting experience buying a new
couch and why everyone else here at KFI seems to
be obsessed with it. It's kind of an only in
downtown La experience. I'll share that story too, if you've
heard us talk about it this week I promise this
will be the last time I bring it up. That's

(15:33):
all coming up on Michael Monks Reports.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News.
You may recall that the La City Council recently voted
to increase the minimum wage just for some hotel workers
and some airport workers. That raise is supposed to start
this month until it incrementally makes its way to thirty
dollars an hour in twenty twenty eight, that's the year

(16:02):
the Olympics come to town. They've called this an Olympic wage,
with supporters at City Hall saying hospitality workers will be
on the front lines of the games and should be
appropriately compensated. Three council members voted against it, agreeing with
hotel operators and airport vendors who say we can't afford this.
The economy here is down, Tourism here is down. Oh

(16:23):
and by the way, even La City Hall can't pay
its own employees. It's laying off hundreds and delaying raises
for more. But the issue passed. Now, some hotel operators
are trying a new tactic. They want to take it
to voters. So business groups have gathered a bunch of

(16:45):
signatures more than one hundred thousand, and they've turned in
those signatures to get a referendum on the ballot to
overturn the wage increase. Now, the raises have been suspended
and will not take effect while the petition is reviewed.
If the petition has ninety in twenty nine hundred and
ninety eight valid signatures, it will be on the June
twenty twenty six ballot. Meanwhile, Defend the Wage LA coalition,

(17:10):
which is made up of the hotel workers union, Unite
Here Local eleven and other groups, has called on the
city clerk to invalidate signatures. They say the hotel business
groups misled voters by claiming the petition would raise wages,
not overturn the minimum wage increase. LA Councilman Hugosta Martinez,
who is a former Unite Here activist, introduced a motion

(17:33):
at city Hall to investigate alleged fraud and other misconduct
by people who were gathering signatures for the hotel business groups.
He was also one of the loudest champions for the
wage increase, But Councilwoman Tracy Park, who voted against the
wage increase, she says, wait a minute, there's been misleading
tactics on the part of Unite here, and to defend

(17:55):
the wage group because.

Speaker 15 (17:56):
We know that engaging in misleading tactics are not unique
to one group, or one organization or one cause when
it comes to this issue. And I know this because
I have personally been targeted by misleading smear campaigns by
the very group now complaining about this behavior.

Speaker 8 (18:18):
I voted no on the.

Speaker 15 (18:19):
Tourism wage ordinance because I didn't think it was thoughtful
and I didn't think it took into account the economic realities.
I also didn't think the time was right, and I
was well within my rights to vote the way I did,
just like all of you were free to vote the
way that you did. Yet in the last month, I
heard from dozens of concerned citizens in my council district

(18:44):
about a harassing and misleading communication that Unite Here and
their counter ballot measures pushed out, and I'm going to
quote it today just like I did in committee.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Park says she trying to introduce an amendment to SODO
Martinez's motion in a committee meeting, but wasn't successful, so
she brought it to the floor at the full city
council meeting and recited what she called a misleading attack
on herself by Unite here and.

Speaker 15 (19:07):
I quote, Tracy Park voted against raising the minimum wage
for hospitality workers. Now her billionaire corporate allies are collecting
signatures to lower the minimum wage. A new complaint alleges
paid signature gatherers are using misdirection and misconduct to collect
these signatures.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Don't sign the petition.

Speaker 15 (19:25):
Email Tracy Park and tell her to stop this misleading
effort to lower the minimum wage. That communication is deceptive
and misleading, suggesting that I'm involved in a ballot measure.
I have nothing to do with it. No one consulted
me about it, no one even asked my opinion about it,
and yet this group is out there suggesting to people

(19:47):
that somehow I should stop this, the very same democratic
process that they're using. So I take serious issue with this,
and I take very serious issue with the deceptive, misleading,
an outright dishonest tactics on all sides.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Councilman Sodo Martinez had this to sing in response to
part elected officials.

Speaker 6 (20:09):
We signed up to be mistreated and tired and feathered
by the press and the public. That is part of
our job. There have been plenty of things that have
been said about me that have been misleading and I
didn't agree with, but I didn't bring it into this chamber.
Second of all, the reports that have that have been

(20:31):
brought forward are about people being assaulted, people being lied to,
people being mistreated, and they have been documented, recorded through testimony,
through video, and many other things. So I just want
to sort of make a distinction between those two things. Politicians,
when we run for office, we sign up for that,

(20:53):
whether you like it or not. But the people out
there in the street getting assaulted because they're trying to
bring information to the public, they didn't sign up for that.
And so I'm supportive of your amendment, but I also
want to make that clear distinction. These are two very
different issues that we're talking about. But again, I was supported,
and I hope folks were supported as well.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
And council Woman Unites Hernandez, another loud advocate for the
wage increase, discounted parks concerns by saying the hotel business
groups are wealthy and utilizing signature gatherers who don't even
know what they're working on.

Speaker 16 (21:22):
I understand the concerns that are coming out of the
signature gathering, but I will say that it feels like
the energy perhaps is misplaced. You know, these signature gatherers
are working for entities, some of them very rich entities,
and so if there's going to be accountability, I think
it should be with those entities instead of the individuals

(21:45):
that are on the ground doing the work. I literally
was at the farmers market a few weeks ago someone
was collecting signatures against the wage increase. They had no
idea what it was about. They were just gathering signatures.
And so instead of trying to who put all of
the weight of repercussions on the signature gathers, I think

(22:07):
the accountability needs to be redirected to the folks who
are actually paying people to be out there.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
The motion by Sodo Martinez was amended by Park's amendment,
and it did ultimately pass. Even Soda Martinez and Hernandez
voted in favor of that. The city attorney has been
directed to identify potential recourse for the city if signature
gatherers misled voters and the LAPD has been directed to

(22:33):
investigate fraud and misconduct related to the referendum effort. One
key piece of the legislation is the city will evaluate
the estimated loss in wages for workers while the delay
is in effect, and how much workers would lose if
their rays doesn't take effect until next year, so they
may eventually seek back wages.

Speaker 12 (22:54):
Up next.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Speaking of money and LA City Hall, what is a
public bank and why should LA want to create one?
Some supporters say this is the best path forward to
save millions on interest and fees at corporate banks and
to reinvest that money back into the community. Some council
members have put their money where their mouths are. But
in a city so strapped for cash and not known

(23:17):
for its proficiency at managing the books, is this something
that would win the trust of the public. We'll tell
you about that. And some offensive and racist words have
been officially banned at City Hall, but not before the
regular gagflyes got their final performances in three SoCal pizza
places made a list designating them among the best in

(23:37):
the world. And the personal story about my Lucky day
at Macy's and the fancy couch I got for Steel
This is Michael Monk's reports on KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Let's wrap up the first of two hours we have
together on this Independence Day holiday weekend. A new bank
maybe coming to Los Angeles, one managed by and owned
by the City of Los Angeles.

Speaker 16 (24:12):
Last month was the last straw we faced. We were
forced to make brutal decisions due to a billion dollar
budget deficit. It exposed the reality of our city's budget.
It stretched thin, deeply reactive, and consistently fails to fund
the things that Angelino's are demanding, like affordable housing. Tens
of millions of public dollars go into the vaults, into

(24:33):
the vaults of public I mean private banks in the
form of interest and fees, not into fixing street lights,
not into fixing sidewalks, not into trash pickup, but to
line the pockets of Wall Street investors at the expense
of hard working tax pay Angelinos.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
That city Counciloman unsices Hernandez pushing for the creation of
a public bank. She has put fifteen thousand dollars of
her offices money into a fund to study the issue.
She's been joined by council members Hugo Soto Martinez, Isabelle
Herado and Bob Blumenfield, each offering fifteen K for a
total of sixty K to pay for the study. Keep
that number in mind, it's going to be important in

(25:12):
a moment. The city Council approved the motion and will
study the public bank's feasibility in Los Angeles. Hernandez says
she's tired of the city's financial struggles and LA could
save a lot of money if it handled its own cash.

Speaker 16 (25:25):
So yes, I've had enough. My colleagues have had enough,
and our constituents have had enough, and fifty eight community
organizations are saying we need a public bank a SAP.
We're not voting to create a public bank today. This
motion allocates a total of forty five thousand dollars from
our Council Office discussionary funds to study the implications for
the city to hold, manage, and leverage its own money.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
The city had close to a billion dollar budget shortfall
before this new fiscal year that started on July first,
it did so in a variety of ways. Not the
least of wish were laying off hundreds of workers and
laying raises to many more. The city's been sued to
the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in the
past fiscal year, and already in this new fiscal year

(26:09):
it'll be dealing with the damages and fallout from immigration
demonstrations and the cost of policing them. Hernande says, this
public bank thing, Look, this is just a study for now.

Speaker 7 (26:19):
What would it.

Speaker 16 (26:20):
Cost to start, what could it save over time, and
what could this tool be used to fund in the future.
And the future we keep talking about bancer might be yes.
If so, then what excuse wuld we have to keep
doing business as usual? Because business as usual is bleeding
our city dry and making private bank institutions richer.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
So they have sixty thousand dollars to pay for this
study thanks to council members writing checks from their own
office accounts. But get this, two years ago, the city
council voted unanimously to spend four hundred sixty thousand for
an outside consultant to conduct a feasibility study for a
public bank. So what happened to that. The money was

(27:02):
budgeted in the fiscal year that ended June thirtieth, just
a week ago. It turns out the budget was so
bad and the city was so strapped for cash its
public bank study money had to be used for other things. Meanwhile,
after months of discussions and years of harassment at City Hall,

(27:24):
the City Council has voted to clean up the meeting
language a little bit. Attendees can no longer use the
N word or the C word in public comments. If
you're wondering, yes, those are frequently hurled at council members
at just about every meeting, including committee meetings. The vote
was a long time coming. La City Hall is off
and home to several gadflies. They don't miss a meeting,

(27:48):
they don't miss a committee meeting. They never miss a
chance to say the most outrageous and offensive things. Now,
this new rule could be challenged on first Amendment and Yes,
at last Tuesday's meeting, the last meeting before the City
Council takes a month off, the gadflies did show up

(28:08):
for one final uncensored performance. I mean, there is no
place like La City Hall. I love covering it for
you people. It is a madhouse. The twenty twenty five
Best Pizza Awards have been announced in Milan, Italy, and
three of the top one hundred pizza places in all
the world right here in Southern California, Apollonius In It's

(28:32):
on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. It came in at
number fifty eight on this list. It's known for its
thick crust slices with crispy edges. It's been on the
top one hundred list two years in a row. Last
year it was number fifty one. Coming in a little
higher at number forty four in the world is Pizza
Rea Say. That is on Pico Boulevard in West la
It's known for an airy, charred crust with fresh ingredients.

(28:55):
It was also recently added to the twenty twenty five
Michelin Guide the Best Local ranking on this world list
at number forty two. Truly Pizza in Dana Point.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
It hypes its.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Locally sourced, high quality ingredients and its artisanal dough preparation.
You know there are there are, These are some places
I'll have to try for sure, no doubt about it.
But I find more often than not that it is
harder to find a bad pizza than it is to
find a good one. But you do know when you're
having a very special slice of pizza. And one more

(29:31):
thing for this hour. If you've listened during the week,
you may have heard some of our favorite hosts here
on the station, Gary and Shannon, Tim Conway, you know,
having some fun with me because I share a story
that I scored, and I mean I scored a beautiful
new couch all by making a mistake and then having

(29:53):
a little bit of good luck based on that mistake.
Long story short. Spouse and I wanted to go to
Ikea to some curtains, our couch, our old couch, couch, sofa,
love seed and a Chase three piece thing. It's about
ten years old. It was starting to fade. It was
something we were thinking about getting rid of passively looking.

(30:14):
But we went shopping for some curtains. I was like,
let's not go to the Ikea and Burbank. Nothing wrong
with it, but we go to that one all the time.
Let's go to the other one. I know there's another one,
so I look up Google maps and yes, there is
another one in Carson, but it shows me one in Arcadia.
I didn't know there was an Ikea in Arcadia. Let's
go there. Let's check that out. So we go out
and it takes us to the mall the maps do
in our Arcadia next to Santa Nita, and I'm like,

(30:38):
where's the Ikea. You know, Ikeas are not something you
can hide, they're huge. But we could not see the Ikea.
So we eat at the cheesecake Factory and I get
back in the car and kind of drive around the
building and there is no Ikea, So like, is it
possibly in this mall?

Speaker 6 (30:53):
So we go in.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Anyway, at the at the mall at Santa Anita, there
is an Ikea. Technically it's it's Nikia Studio. So they've
got some you know, some smaller items that you can
shop for. They didn't have any curtains, but they help
you basically design you your space in this thing. So
it was kind of a busted trip because that's not
what we went for. They didn't have what we were

(31:15):
looking for. But they have a Macy's at this mall,
and I said, let's go up and look at the
curtains at the Macy's. They'll help us. So we're walking
to look for the curtains and I asked one of
the guys who's working there. He where are the curtains,
and he's like, we don't have any at this at
this location. And now I'm just thinking, I'm not supposed
to have curtains, That's okay. But out of the corner

(31:36):
of my eye, I spot this gorgeous five I don't
know is it four or five piece sectional sleep or sofa.
It's olive green, beautiful fabric, and I can tell that
it's marked way down. And I go and look at
the original price is like five thousand dollars and it

(31:58):
is marked for eight hundred dollars with another twenty percent off.
I asked the guy, what's wrong with it? Is the
our body inside of it? This thing is a bed
in it. He's like, nope, it's just been the floor
model for two and a half years. That didn't bother me.
It felt so good. It's comfortable. I will tell you

(32:20):
the craziest thing that happened with this situation of only
spending seven hundred bucks on the couch, plus another hundred
for the U haul, we needed to go get it
a few days later, and that was a pain. But
as we're moving the old couch down we lived downtown
in the apartment, so we're carrying it down into the
trash room. We started with the chase, beautiful chase. It

(32:41):
was in the best shape of the three pieces, but
it had been scratched a couple times by the couch.
When we go back downstairs with the second piece, I'm
trying to be nice here, but guy was a vagrant
who had gotten into our trash room and had this
chase tied to a sickle. That's how crafty these guys

(33:03):
can be. And I said, it's all yours, man, don't
worry about it. Don't worry about it's all yours. We
got a love seat too, if you want to tie
that on there. Anyway, we come back down with the
largest piece, and this vagrant guy is he's in the
building across from ours, in our courtyard, and he's helping
carry the chase up to someone's apartment, like, hey, are
you good? Do you need anything else from us? No,

(33:24):
he doesn't live here. Turns out one of our neighbors
bought the chase from the homeless man within fifteen minutes
of us putting it in the trash, So somebody made
a little bit of money on my discarded furniture, and

(33:44):
that neighbor ended up taking all three pieces. So I
was delighted to know that the old furniture found a
new home that will make somebody happy as well. That's
the couch story. I'm sorry if you heard it multiple
times this week on KFI. We've imposted it on Instagram.
We had a little bit of fun with it this week,
But that's the story, and this is the last time
you're gonna hear about it. I think I can't make
that promise. We'd like to have a little fun here sometimes,

(34:07):
all right, We got another hour ahead of Michael Monks's reports.
You're listening to us right here on KFI AM six

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Forty, KFI AM six forty on demand