January 4, 2026 • 30 mins
The City of LA hasn't paved an inch of road since the fiscal year began on July 1. Two activists pushing for safer streets in the region say it's unacceptable. They question the city's priorities in this interview. Plus, the best day to create a dating profile if your New Year resolutions include finding love.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Happy New Year.
It's twenty twenty six. We've just wrapped up the busy
holiday travel season. It was crowded, it was wet here
in southern California. It's still wet, but one travel expert
says this month and the next few are the best
times to get away if you want. ABC's j O'Brien
(00:30):
spoke with travel expert and managing editor of The Points
Guy Clint Henderson.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
What do people need to know if they are traveling today.
Maybe they're heading out the door, maybe they're watching this
from the car, maybe they're watching this at an airport.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
What is the best advice?
Speaker 5 (00:43):
And I think actually January February March is a great
time to travel. That's sort of why I'm here in
Brazil for the next couple of weeks. It's just a
little quieter, a little calmer, it's a little cheaper. So
I love traveling in the off season. But the worst
of the holiday crowds are done.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
We hear about these New Year's resident we were doing
a segment about it in a previous hour. And there
are those with that resolution to travel more to broaden
their horizons. What are your tips for those who are
looking to travel more in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Look, you don't have to break the bank. You know,
travel is high on everyone's list really since the pandemic.
You know, people decided they were going to travel, Come
heck or high water, and we're seeing that. But you
don't have to break the bank. My favorite tool is
one called Google Flights and you can use a tool
called Google Flights explore. You literally just put in your
home airport. It will give you an interactive map and
(01:33):
sure you the cheapest places you can go, whether that's
next weekend or whether that's eight months from now, all
over the world. So great place to find bargains. Of course,
go to the Point Skuy. We write up all the
big deal alerts. I subscribe to some newsletters out there.
You put in the Point Sky newsletter, But I'm always
on the hunt for deals. Cheap airfare is still out there,
you just got to hunt for it.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Clint Henderson who so kindly said come heck or high
water and not the other word, because.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
This is a family. Oh thank you, sir. Happy New
Year to you.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That was ABC's j O'Brien speaking with Clint Henderson of
The Points Guy. Now, if you're traveling on LA City roads,
expect a bumpy ride. A new op ed in the
La Times explains the city hasn't repaved a single inch
of roads since the fiscal year began last July. One
of the co authors of that op ed is founder
and leader of Streets for All, Michael Schneider, and he
(02:23):
joins us now. Michael Schneider thinks, so much for taking
some time for KFI.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Good to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You open this op ed with the line, have you
noticed more potholes than usual on Los Angeles's streets lately?
My answer is yeah, I have. I live in downtown LA.
The streets are a mess. And you and your co
author of this op ed you analyzed why this might
be and why it might be a lingering problem. Let's
just start with the fact that we are apparently seeing
(02:50):
more potholes than usual.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
Why is that, Well, our city normally repaves hundreds of
miles of streets every year, so that's the fresh new
asphalt that you see sometime it's very smooth to drive
on or walk on our bike on. And what's happened
in the last year or two is we are doing
very very.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Little of that.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
So what used to be an annual maintenance activity. The
city has about seven thousand miles of streets, and we
were doing four five hundred miles a year, and resurfacing
has slowed to just a small trickle, so we're not.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Even at our current rate. We're not even.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
Maintaining our current broken streets. They're actually getting worse every year.
The Payment Condition Index, which is the way the city
measures how it's doing zero to one hundred, is scheduled
to drop.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
To fifty six next year.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
If we were in school, that would be an f
and that's a four percent drop in one year. So
if you do the math, if we're dropping four percent
every year in the quality of our streets, it's not
going to take very long before. Like we said in
the article, of the city is one big pothole.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
One big pothole indeed, and compared to its neighbors, it's
much worse. So it's not like it's a Southern California problem. Necessarily.
This seems to be very specific to Los Angeles. You
note that Santa Monica has a score on that Pavement
Condition index of eighty two. West Hollywood seventy seven, Culver
City seventy four. What do those smaller cities do that
(04:10):
LA is not doing.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
They spend more money on their streets, much more money
per capita. I mean, the city of Los Angeles is
so broke, and we've we went to the article about
some of the reasons why.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
But we're so broke.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
That we have one of the lowest per capita spending
of street maintenance of any major city in the country.
And you know, San Francisco spends a huge multiple more
per person, which is why their streets are better. New
York City spends a lot more per person. We just
don't treat our streets and sidewalks like the major First
(04:43):
world you know, one.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Of the premier cities of the world. We don't treat
our streets and sidewalks that way.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You you make what I might characterize as a bit
of a suggestive accusation against the city here where you
say that the city may be shirking its responsibility under
the mobility plan that was approved by voters known as
Measure HLA. I know that there are a lot of
measures and propositions that have been adopted and there's still reference,
but we might forget what they are. Just briefly tell
(05:11):
me what Measure HLA is.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
So we gathered one hundred thousand scatures to get Measured
HLA in the ballot. It passed last March with nearly
two thirds of the vote. What it does is it
sort of codifies the city's mobility plan. The city council
had already adopted its mobility plan in twenty fifteen, and
it's full of thousands of miles of improvements for people
to bike, people to drive, people that use transit, and
(05:33):
people to walk. And the city was doing very little
of its own plan. They were kind of ignoring it,
and so all Measure HLA did. It said anytime you
do any type of roadwork in the city, you have
to follow your own plan as well.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And it looks like, if I'm reading this op ed correctly,
you're suggesting that maybe the city doesn't want to have
to install bike lanes or bus lanes or these other
mobility elements that would be required to be part of
that street. That's something you think is happening.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I think it's part of the story.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Yes, So it gets more complicated, and we have to
dive into something that maybe is not excited to talk about,
but very relevant, and that's curve ramps. Under the federal
guidelines American for Disability Act, whenever the city does routine
street maintenance, like we're paving, they also have to bring
curve ramps up to a good state of repair common standard,
(06:26):
modern standards, and some corners don't even have ramps at all,
so they need to construct the ramps somehow. The city
of La Way, beyond inflation, has gone from less than
ten thousand dollars per ramp to about fifty thousand dollars
per corner or up to two hundred thousand dollars per
intersection today. So the numbers are astronomical, and the city
(06:46):
doesn't have a funding source for that, and so beyond
just potentially shirking its responsibilities for measure HLA, they're also
shirking their responsibilities under the Americans Disabilities Act by doing
what they're calling large asohole or repair, which by the way,
was the term almost nobody had ever heard of prior
to what's going on today. But apparently there might be
(07:08):
a loophole under federal guidelines where if you do large
asphalt repair, which is not repaving the whole street, it's
just small sections of it, you don't have to put
in the ramps. However, Measure HLA does not exempt large
asphalt repair, so they are flouting the law.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
If they do any large.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
Ausphal repair over an eighth of a mile by a
local ordinance, they're flouting Measure HLA. They may be in
compliance with federal guidelines for ADA ramps, but they're not
compliant to Measure HLA if they're doing it over an
eighth of a mile.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
We'll continue with Michael Schneider on the state of LA streets. Next.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
LA hasn't repaved any of its roads this fiscal year,
and when it does work on the roads, it's more
expensive than in other cities. Our guest is Michael Schneider,
the founder and chief executive of Streets for All. I
want to talk a bit more about that money, and
not just the city's budget. We'll get to that next,
but first we're talking about the price tag that LA
places on making curb ramps. And you suggest that LA
(08:10):
spends thirty five to fifty thousand dollars per corner, five
times what the city of Beverly Hills spends. For example,
let me give you an example that I witnessed, and
I always thought that maybe I was seeing something a
little weird. But I live on the border of the
fashion district in skid Row and Seventh Street Downtown LA
runs right through that and that street in the past
(08:31):
couple of years has undergone a major overhaul and they've
repaved the street. There are new curb protected bike lanes.
This project took forever, but Michael, it also seemed like
city crews looked like they were finished, but then they
would come back a few months later and they would
have to replace something that they had done because it
(08:51):
wasn't working correctly. They've had to put up what are
those called ballards. They've had to put these up on
some of these curbs that are installed to make people
make why turns onto the other streets, I suppose for
pedestrian and cyclist safety. Is the city also raising the
price tag on their projects just by I don't know, incompetence.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Well, the project you're talking about is a very interesting project.
So Seventh Street is one of the most important bike
streets in the city, and so the city won a
grant to instead of protecting them with the flimsy plastic ballards,
to actually build concrete curbs, which is much safer for cyclists. Amazingly,
the project length goes a lot through skid Row and
(09:37):
then it's supposed to continue all the way to Figueroa
and that has not happened yet. I think it stops
at Main Street or Spring.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Street right now.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
There's two things interesting about that project. One talking about
efficiency within the city. The city has a guideline that says,
if any utility work needs to be done when you're
already ripping up a street, let's do it at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
That's how really.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
Logical on the surface, but our utilities are DAP specifically
is often very slow to do what they need to do.
And so I want to say there was about a
year delay on a two block section of Seventh Street
near Spring and Maine just because LEDWP couldn't get what
(10:21):
they needed to get done, so Streets LA and other
city departments could continue their surfacing work and the bike
lane work. So that's an example where it's a good
intention law to all do it at the same time,
but a city departments do things at a dramatically different pace.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
The law can have horrible.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
Intended consequences, and in the case of Seventh Street, pushing
up the cost of the project by delaying it so long.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And now they do have the protective curves, but they
also have I think you called them unattractive, those plastic ballards.
Those are also there. I saw I witnessed cars run
over those curves, and these weren't necessarily drivers that were
looking to be speeding or anything illegal. They were very difficult.
It was very difficult to see because it's so dark
(11:02):
along this corridor of Seventh Street, because so many of
the street lights are out. So I'm assuming that these
ballards were added to prevent these crashes, to add another
safety component. But it gets to another point. The city
can't take care of its street lights either, in addition
to many other services, and that's because, as you also noted,
the city is broke, and as a guy who covers
city Hall, I don't know how they dig themselves out
(11:24):
of the financial mess they're in to fix these services
that people deal with every day, like potholes. What are
your thoughts on the city's financial condition.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Well, I have two thoughts.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
One, I think we could be spending the money we
have much more efficiently. I think, for example, going back
to curve ramps, I was talking to the head of
public Works for Dallas and I thought for sure they
were giving me the price without a zero in it.
When he told me their curve brams were three thousand
dollars four thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
I mean, for the same country, we should have access
to the same materials and services, and to have such
a dramatic price difference to another major city is a problem.
So Number one, where the city is working on charter
reform right now, we need to reorganize our city departments
to spend the pressures dollars we do have much more efficiently.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
We're not efficient right now.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
We waste a lot of money, and with curve around specifically,
we over engineer them. Number Two, we need our city
leadership to have some fiscal responsibility. When you give massive raises.
I'm not saying they didn't deserve the raises, but when
you give massive raises to LAPD, LAFD and civil servants,
civil servants with no plan to pay for them, just
(12:33):
hoping that we'll figure it out. That's not prudent fiscal planning.
That's what happened under this mayor. And so all of
a sudden, the bills team doue. We didn't have the money.
We class a departments to the bone just to be
able to afford the raises that we couldn't afford. And
now we're in this vicious doom loop where because we're
(12:54):
not maintaining our streets, we're paying out more and more
in lawsuits due to potholes and other things unsafe street conditions.
And it's not going to be long if we continue
at this pace where all of a sudden we're going
to be paying more in lawsuit settlements than we are
in fixing the streets. That's going to be tragic when
that day comes, or we're not that far away from it.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I raised that point a lot when I'm on the
talk shows here at KFI. It's that there's this irony
that we're spending so much on lawsuits, and because of that,
you can't fix the problems that are leading to the lawsuits.
A lot of these cases are what they characterize or
categorize as trip and fall because somebody has been injured
on city infrastructure, and you call it, I think a
(13:35):
doom loop. I don't see how it's going to get
better next year because the financial condition has not been addressed,
and they've added this significant amount of pressure to their
budget by approving the convention center expansion, which I'm very
anxious to see how these budget conversations go next spring.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
The convention center expansion is one of the most fiscally
irresponsible things I've ever seen. Maybe we should expand our
convention center. Maybe it's not competitive with other major cities,
that's all fine, But should we bankrupt our general fund
even more for decades to expand it? Right now, it's
not a priority. Angelina's have other priorities and expanding the
convention center. I don't understand whether Mayor was pushing for
(14:14):
this budget share. Katie or Aspovski gave it a very
impassioned speech at how absurdly irresponsible this was.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Unfortunately it's still passed.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
But it's kind of so like there's multiple things going
on at the same time when we are our own
worst enemy because we're not doing fiscally prudent things, and
everyone's just kicking the can down the road saying we'll
figure it out next year, or we'll just cut some fat.
There's no more fat to cut. I mean, when you
have a city that's saying maybe we can't pick up
the trash every week, maybe we need to go to
every other week to survive. That's a material difference in
(14:44):
Angelina's quality of life, and unfortunately we're kind of doing
that thinking across all city departments right now.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yep, kicking the can down the road is right, and
that can is more than likely to hit a pothole
on the way, as you know. To end this La
Times op ed, you're not imagining it. L has surrendered
to the potholes. That's the title of the op ed
published in the La Times, co written by Michael Schneider,
who is the founder and chief executive of Streets for All. Michael,
(15:10):
I'm grateful for the time you gave us. I appreciate
the work you're doing, and hopefully there is some change
on the horizon so that some basic city services are
more appropriately addressed. Thank you for talking to KFI today,
Thanks for having me up next. The op ed in
the La Times has a second author, orn Hdar joins
us to talk about the dangers of LA's streets.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
This is Michael Monk's reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've been talking about the condition of LA streets and
how the city hasn't repaved any of its roads this
fiscal year, deciding instead to do some patchwork. The city's
financial struggles are well documented, but they have real life consequences.
Orin Hdar is the publisher of the Future is La,
(15:57):
which can be found at future is He joins us. Now, Ornhadar,
thank you so much for taking some time for KFI.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
You bet my pleasure, all right.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So we talked to your co author about the conditions
of Los Angeles's streets and this op ed you both
published in the La Times. It's just so damning as
to the city's priorities and abilities to deliver basic services,
especially as it relates to our infrastructure. But this is
something you've been on for a long time. You have
written a lot about it, and it seems to be
(16:31):
an unfortunate truth because there's just so many continuing problems,
some of them very very serious. Just very recently you
wrote a story about a gentleman who was hurt very
severely in the Arts District. What can you tell us
about that?
Speaker 7 (16:46):
Yeah, so this guy Alan is himself a safe streets advocate,
So he works with this organization called Streets for All,
which advocates for, you know, just making our streets safer
for everyone.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
In and out of a car.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
And he's was actually on his way to Streets for
All's holiday party in the Arts District downtown, and he
was riding his scooter and he was riding it down
a bike lane that on a street that had been
recently repaved, except it hadn't been fully repaved. It had
(17:24):
just they had just repaved kind of the strip of
asphalt closest to the curb. And the way they did it,
they kind of like patched a certain area of it.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Kind of like a patch within a patch, you can
think of it.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
And that patch, basically, over about a year, turned into
a giant pothole. And this poor guy on his scooter
and he wasn't even going full speed because his scooter
was low battery. He hit this pothole and basically flew
off his scooter, face.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Planet on the asphalt.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
He was wearing a helmet, but he still he broke
in his wrist, forearm, and shoulder and his front two teeth.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Okay, obviously a terrible, terrible accident. But the irony that
this is a streets advocate, a safe streets advocate going
to a Safe Streets organization holiday party and suffers those
extreme injuries. I suppose there's a legal case involved here.
Speaker 7 (18:24):
Yeah, And I mean, you know, I know, yeah, I can't.
I don't know much about the details of that. I'm
not a lawyer, but it seems like a pretty good case.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Well, yeah, the only reason I wanted to bring it
up is because, I mean, it's sad. It's terrible because
the city is continuously, you know, paying out these massive
settlements to lawsuits that are classified as trip and fall,
but they tend to be related to sidewalk and road
infrastructure where people suffer serious injuries. Trip and fall really
(18:56):
downplays some of the injuries that people are suffering on
these roads. And so the city is paying out these
massive sums, which is putting a bigger dent into its
general fund that it's supposed to use to fix these streets.
And so we're in this circular situation where the city
doesn't have the money to pay to fix the problems
that are causing the lawsuits. That's reducing the amount of
(19:17):
money they have.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
And then the worst part is that because they've stopped
repaving the streets, which we can get into why, that's
just going to make it even worse. And so, you
know what happened to this guy Allen is going to
happen to thousands more people and then we're going to
be paying even more money down the road. And then
the other crazy part is that generally when they settle
(19:42):
a lawsuit, one of the terms of the settlement is you.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Have to go fix that pothole.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
So everything's going to get fixed eventually because the city
will be forced to by the settlements anyway.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
So why not just do it in the first place.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Our guest is Aornhdar who's the publisher of the Future
is La. I want to talk a bit about why
you think the city is falling so far behind on
fixing this infrastructure. We kind of touch on the fact
that it doesn't have any money and so that's a problem.
Also there may be a situation involving priorities, but you
(20:16):
also suggest that one of the reasons that they've stopped
repaving streets may be illegal or is probably illegal, which
part of that is illegal.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
So the you know, the city stopped repaving streets in July,
if they didn't suddenly run out of money for repaving
streets in July. In fact, what they've done is they've
shifted their budget from full repaving to patching. Basically, they
had came up with this term large asphalt repair, but
it's basically patching. It's maybe paving like half of a
(20:49):
block and like one lane of the of the street.
And the reason they're doing this is because the federal
government says when you fully repay a street, you have
to fix the curve ramps, you know, the ada ramps
that let disabled people go up and down from the
sidewalk to the street. And in La you know, a
(21:14):
huge percentage of those curve bramps are not up to date.
The easy way to tell is whether there's one of
those yellow bumpy rectangles right at the bottom of the ramp.
If it's not there, then that curve bramp is probably
like twenty thirty years old. And so what that means
basically is every time the city repays the street. They
have to fix these curve brams, and that can double
(21:34):
or triple the cost of repaving the street. So when
the federal government basically came down and said you have
to start doing this, that's when the city said, well,
maybe we'll just stop repaving completely.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
So it seems like some sort of loophole work around
that they found in order to not have to do
exactly what that voter approved measure directed.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Them to do.
Speaker 7 (21:55):
So the voter approved measure is actually something else, so
that that pressure is coming from the set federal government.
What the voters approved was we did this in spring
of twenty twenty four. We've voted for a measure HLA,
which passed like a two to one ratio. It was
a big, you know, kind of a landslide victory, and
that basically says, you know, the city in twenty fifteen
(22:17):
came up with this mobility plan of like some streets
should have bike lanes, some streets should have bus lanes,
and then the city basically promptly ignored that plan and
didn't install anything. So the voter said, we have this
plan city, you need to implement it. And the way
we're going to force you to implement. It is really simple.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Every time you.
Speaker 7 (22:37):
Repay the street, just put in the lines for whatever
is on the mobility plan. So if it's supposed to
be a bike lane, just put an extra line for
a bike lane. So it sounded like, oh, it'll be free.
Well it turns out that the city, if the city
stops repaving, then it also can avoid putting in all
the stuff that's.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
On the mobility plan.
Speaker 7 (22:58):
So the irony is that we're not repaving streets basically
in order to avoid doing things to keep all the
other people who use the streets safe. So, in other words,
we're making it harder for pedestrians because we're not fixing
curve brams. We're making harder for cyclists and bus riders
(23:19):
because we're not putting a bike in bus lanes. So
it hurts the drivers because the actual pavement sucks, and
then it hurts everybody else use the street because the
city isn't willing to put in the infrastructure to keep
everybody else safe.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Well, we will welcome you back here for sure, very soon,
I hope, because I'd like to dive more into that
and some other observations that you might have orin thank
you so much for the time that you gave us
in and good luck out there.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
All right, Michael, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Up next, if your New Year resolutions include finding love,
it turns out there's a very specific date that could
be best to do that, but you better be ready.
It is very soon.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Your New Year resolutions may include a new job, making
more money, eating better and exercising, traveling, or finding love.
If you're looking for a mate. There are plenty of
fish in the sea, and they're all apparently swimming Tomorrow.
ABC's j O'Brien spoke with the founder of the Dating Academy,
Bella Gandhi.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
This Sunday, right January fourth, from what I have heard,
is going to be what the busiest online dating day
of the year.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Is that right?
Speaker 8 (24:33):
It's predicted to be.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
So Sunday's are always the busiest day, Jay, and forty
eight percent of Americans are unmarried for the census, So
as we're making resolutions tomorrow, falling in love is surely
going to be in one of the top five.
Speaker 8 (24:50):
So Sunday is going to be a massive day.
Speaker 9 (24:53):
The apps predict a fifty to eighty percent surge in
memberships on Sunday.
Speaker 8 (24:59):
Some apps have it predicted.
Speaker 9 (25:01):
That eight fifty two pm Eastern Standard times are going
to be the busiest moment of the busiest day. There's
a lot of data behind this, So if you're ready
to find love, Sunday could be your day.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
For the kids out there, we're going to get into
red flags and green flags in one second.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
But I do have an advice question to ask you,
which is.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
For someone who's looking for love in the new year
in twenty twenty six, I mean, what should they do?
Speaker 4 (25:24):
What are the best practices here?
Speaker 9 (25:27):
Well, first of all, you need, like for anything you
want to be successful at, you've got to have a plan. Okay,
so have a dating plan. And on Sunday you definitely
want to get on the apps one or two maximum.
And then also for twenty twenty six, think about if
you want to find love, how you can go to
events where you can meet.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
People that are like minded in real life.
Speaker 9 (25:50):
And the third way is get your friends, your family,
maybe the super connectors in your life that like connecting people,
have them start to set you up on dates with
great people.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So what are as I said we were going to
get into this.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Some of the biggest red flags and green flags for
folks when they're looking at who should be a long
term partner. You know, they meet someone on the app
or maybe in New Year's Eve tonight, what should they
be looking for?
Speaker 9 (26:17):
Well, well, when you're on dates, look to see number
one that you're aligned with what this person wants and
they're aligned with what you want. If you're looking for
a long term, committed, monogamous relationship that leads to marriage,
make sure that.
Speaker 8 (26:33):
They are too.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
And if you're not sure, a lot of the apps,
if you meet somebody there will answer that question for
you because people can say what they're looking for, but
it's a red flag. If you're not looking for the
same thing they're looking for, then it might.
Speaker 8 (26:47):
Be time for you to move on. And here's the one.
Speaker 9 (26:51):
If somebody on their app says they're not looking for drama,
chances are they're going to be the one that's going
to cause you drama. So that's always a flag from
my clients at Smart Dating Academy.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
That's also a red flag for employees of ABC News.
Usually when people say I don't cause a lot of
drama in the workplace.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
But I digress.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
So I have heard this rumor about you, which is
that of your clients, the ones who have gotten.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Married, is it right that zero have been divorced?
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Is that true? What's your secret there? Look?
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Who went to dating school?
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Right?
Speaker 9 (27:24):
So when I was young, I had to figure it out.
So I put together my own model, which led me
to my husband. We've been married for twenty eight years.
I started teaching everybody around me that would listen, and
sixteen years ago I found it Smart Dating Academy to
teach people that there is, indeed a right way to
look for partners that make you happy. What I call
(27:45):
it is a good live to your pott.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
So for folks who are sick of maybe dating apps,
I know we talked about getting on them starting on
the fourth.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
But for those who have said.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I'm fed up with those, should they get back on
them or is there another alternative for them to maybe
meet someone in real life?
Speaker 4 (28:04):
What should they do?
Speaker 10 (28:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (28:06):
I think right now, you'll hear a lot about dating
app fatigue. Right, people feel like there's no good people
out there. I promise you there are great people on
the apps. But if you're tired of it, go to Google,
Go to meet up. Look for things in your area
that you're interested in doing. Maybe that's wine tasting, maybe
that's a running club. Join things where you put yourself
(28:27):
in a room with like minded people doing things that
bring you joy.
Speaker 8 (28:31):
Because guess what, when you're.
Speaker 9 (28:33):
Feeling good and happy, you are your most magnetic and attractive.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Bella Gandhi with some great advice dating advice into the
new year. Thank you so much, Happy New Year to you.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
And good luck to all you would be love birds.
Get those phones dusted off, the profile picks ready and
start swiping. But if you're already with someone, it's a
great weekend for the cinema or little Netflix and chill.
ABC's Mike Dubuski has the highlights.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
ABC Entertainment News.
Speaker 10 (29:02):
It's the first weekend of the new year, and with
it comes a lot of new movies and TV shows
to throw on your watch list. Mother of God, the
series finale of Stranger Things, is finally out on Netflix.
The epic conclusion to the long running sci fi series
Fine stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfard, David Harber, Wenona Ryder,
and the rest of the Gang uniting to defeat Bechna once.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
And for all, Dark Kids, not a trust changers like
it else? Who Said I Trust You?
Speaker 10 (29:29):
Also on Netflix, the latest Harlan Coben adaptation is the
new series Runaway, which follows a web of secrets and
the search for a missing daughter.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
So What's with Eli?
Speaker 10 (29:41):
In theaters, there's the new movie The Plague, a horror
film that takes place at an all boys water polo camp.
And if you missed the year ABC's retrospective on twenty
twenty five, hosted by Robin Roberts, you can catch it
now on Disney Plus and Hulu like Debuski, ABC News.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
And next week on Wednesday, KFI A six will bring
you La Wildfires one Year Later or Special, on the
anniversary of last January's destructive wildfires. Our news team here
worked on this to bring you stories from the Palisades
and Altadena, including the ongoing struggles people are facing as
they try to rebuild their lives and their homes. It
(30:18):
will air Wednesday from seven to nine pm, and then
I'll be on Live from nine to ten to talk
more about where we stand right now. The special will
air again next Saturday night from seven to nine in
place of this show and We'll be back with another
live edition of Michael Monks Reports in two weeks. We
hope you'll join us then.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. Happy New Year.
It's twenty twenty six. We've just wrapped up the busy
holiday travel season. It was crowded, it was wet here
in southern California. It's still wet, but one travel expert
says this month and the next few are the best
times to get away if you want. ABC's j O'Brien
(00:30):
spoke with travel expert and managing editor of The Points
Guy Clint Henderson.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
What do people need to know if they are traveling today.
Maybe they're heading out the door, maybe they're watching this
from the car, maybe they're watching this at an airport.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
What is the best advice?
Speaker 5 (00:43):
And I think actually January February March is a great
time to travel. That's sort of why I'm here in
Brazil for the next couple of weeks. It's just a
little quieter, a little calmer, it's a little cheaper. So
I love traveling in the off season. But the worst
of the holiday crowds are done.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
We hear about these New Year's resident we were doing
a segment about it in a previous hour. And there
are those with that resolution to travel more to broaden
their horizons. What are your tips for those who are
looking to travel more in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Look, you don't have to break the bank. You know,
travel is high on everyone's list really since the pandemic.
You know, people decided they were going to travel, Come
heck or high water, and we're seeing that. But you
don't have to break the bank. My favorite tool is
one called Google Flights and you can use a tool
called Google Flights explore. You literally just put in your
home airport. It will give you an interactive map and
(01:33):
sure you the cheapest places you can go, whether that's
next weekend or whether that's eight months from now, all
over the world. So great place to find bargains. Of course,
go to the Point Skuy. We write up all the
big deal alerts. I subscribe to some newsletters out there.
You put in the Point Sky newsletter, But I'm always
on the hunt for deals. Cheap airfare is still out there,
you just got to hunt for it.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Clint Henderson who so kindly said come heck or high
water and not the other word, because.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
This is a family. Oh thank you, sir. Happy New
Year to you.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That was ABC's j O'Brien speaking with Clint Henderson of
The Points Guy. Now, if you're traveling on LA City roads,
expect a bumpy ride. A new op ed in the
La Times explains the city hasn't repaved a single inch
of roads since the fiscal year began last July. One
of the co authors of that op ed is founder
and leader of Streets for All, Michael Schneider, and he
(02:23):
joins us now. Michael Schneider thinks, so much for taking
some time for KFI.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Good to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You open this op ed with the line, have you
noticed more potholes than usual on Los Angeles's streets lately?
My answer is yeah, I have. I live in downtown LA.
The streets are a mess. And you and your co
author of this op ed you analyzed why this might
be and why it might be a lingering problem. Let's
just start with the fact that we are apparently seeing
(02:50):
more potholes than usual.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
Why is that, Well, our city normally repaves hundreds of
miles of streets every year, so that's the fresh new
asphalt that you see sometime it's very smooth to drive
on or walk on our bike on. And what's happened
in the last year or two is we are doing
very very.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Little of that.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
So what used to be an annual maintenance activity. The
city has about seven thousand miles of streets, and we
were doing four five hundred miles a year, and resurfacing
has slowed to just a small trickle, so we're not.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Even at our current rate. We're not even.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
Maintaining our current broken streets. They're actually getting worse every year.
The Payment Condition Index, which is the way the city
measures how it's doing zero to one hundred, is scheduled
to drop.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
To fifty six next year.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
If we were in school, that would be an f
and that's a four percent drop in one year. So
if you do the math, if we're dropping four percent
every year in the quality of our streets, it's not
going to take very long before. Like we said in
the article, of the city is one big pothole.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
One big pothole indeed, and compared to its neighbors, it's
much worse. So it's not like it's a Southern California problem. Necessarily.
This seems to be very specific to Los Angeles. You
note that Santa Monica has a score on that Pavement
Condition index of eighty two. West Hollywood seventy seven, Culver
City seventy four. What do those smaller cities do that
(04:10):
LA is not doing.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
They spend more money on their streets, much more money
per capita. I mean, the city of Los Angeles is
so broke, and we've we went to the article about
some of the reasons why.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
But we're so broke.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
That we have one of the lowest per capita spending
of street maintenance of any major city in the country.
And you know, San Francisco spends a huge multiple more
per person, which is why their streets are better. New
York City spends a lot more per person. We just
don't treat our streets and sidewalks like the major First
(04:43):
world you know, one.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Of the premier cities of the world. We don't treat
our streets and sidewalks that way.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You you make what I might characterize as a bit
of a suggestive accusation against the city here where you
say that the city may be shirking its responsibility under
the mobility plan that was approved by voters known as
Measure HLA. I know that there are a lot of
measures and propositions that have been adopted and there's still reference,
but we might forget what they are. Just briefly tell
(05:11):
me what Measure HLA is.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
So we gathered one hundred thousand scatures to get Measured
HLA in the ballot. It passed last March with nearly
two thirds of the vote. What it does is it
sort of codifies the city's mobility plan. The city council
had already adopted its mobility plan in twenty fifteen, and
it's full of thousands of miles of improvements for people
to bike, people to drive, people that use transit, and
(05:33):
people to walk. And the city was doing very little
of its own plan. They were kind of ignoring it,
and so all Measure HLA did. It said anytime you
do any type of roadwork in the city, you have
to follow your own plan as well.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And it looks like, if I'm reading this op ed correctly,
you're suggesting that maybe the city doesn't want to have
to install bike lanes or bus lanes or these other
mobility elements that would be required to be part of
that street. That's something you think is happening.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I think it's part of the story.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Yes, So it gets more complicated, and we have to
dive into something that maybe is not excited to talk about,
but very relevant, and that's curve ramps. Under the federal
guidelines American for Disability Act, whenever the city does routine
street maintenance, like we're paving, they also have to bring
curve ramps up to a good state of repair common standard,
(06:26):
modern standards, and some corners don't even have ramps at all,
so they need to construct the ramps somehow. The city
of La Way, beyond inflation, has gone from less than
ten thousand dollars per ramp to about fifty thousand dollars
per corner or up to two hundred thousand dollars per
intersection today. So the numbers are astronomical, and the city
(06:46):
doesn't have a funding source for that, and so beyond
just potentially shirking its responsibilities for measure HLA, they're also
shirking their responsibilities under the Americans Disabilities Act by doing
what they're calling large asohole or repair, which by the way,
was the term almost nobody had ever heard of prior
to what's going on today. But apparently there might be
(07:08):
a loophole under federal guidelines where if you do large
asphalt repair, which is not repaving the whole street, it's
just small sections of it, you don't have to put
in the ramps. However, Measure HLA does not exempt large
asphalt repair, so they are flouting the law.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
If they do any large.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
Ausphal repair over an eighth of a mile by a
local ordinance, they're flouting Measure HLA. They may be in
compliance with federal guidelines for ADA ramps, but they're not
compliant to Measure HLA if they're doing it over an
eighth of a mile.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
We'll continue with Michael Schneider on the state of LA streets. Next.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
LA hasn't repaved any of its roads this fiscal year,
and when it does work on the roads, it's more
expensive than in other cities. Our guest is Michael Schneider,
the founder and chief executive of Streets for All. I
want to talk a bit more about that money, and
not just the city's budget. We'll get to that next,
but first we're talking about the price tag that LA
places on making curb ramps. And you suggest that LA
(08:10):
spends thirty five to fifty thousand dollars per corner, five
times what the city of Beverly Hills spends. For example,
let me give you an example that I witnessed, and
I always thought that maybe I was seeing something a
little weird. But I live on the border of the
fashion district in skid Row and Seventh Street Downtown LA
runs right through that and that street in the past
(08:31):
couple of years has undergone a major overhaul and they've
repaved the street. There are new curb protected bike lanes.
This project took forever, but Michael, it also seemed like
city crews looked like they were finished, but then they
would come back a few months later and they would
have to replace something that they had done because it
(08:51):
wasn't working correctly. They've had to put up what are
those called ballards. They've had to put these up on
some of these curbs that are installed to make people
make why turns onto the other streets, I suppose for
pedestrian and cyclist safety. Is the city also raising the
price tag on their projects just by I don't know, incompetence.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Well, the project you're talking about is a very interesting project.
So Seventh Street is one of the most important bike
streets in the city, and so the city won a
grant to instead of protecting them with the flimsy plastic ballards,
to actually build concrete curbs, which is much safer for cyclists. Amazingly,
the project length goes a lot through skid Row and
(09:37):
then it's supposed to continue all the way to Figueroa
and that has not happened yet. I think it stops
at Main Street or Spring.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Street right now.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
There's two things interesting about that project. One talking about
efficiency within the city. The city has a guideline that says,
if any utility work needs to be done when you're
already ripping up a street, let's do it at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
That's how really.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
Logical on the surface, but our utilities are DAP specifically
is often very slow to do what they need to do.
And so I want to say there was about a
year delay on a two block section of Seventh Street
near Spring and Maine just because LEDWP couldn't get what
(10:21):
they needed to get done, so Streets LA and other
city departments could continue their surfacing work and the bike
lane work. So that's an example where it's a good
intention law to all do it at the same time,
but a city departments do things at a dramatically different pace.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
The law can have horrible.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
Intended consequences, and in the case of Seventh Street, pushing
up the cost of the project by delaying it so long.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And now they do have the protective curves, but they
also have I think you called them unattractive, those plastic ballards.
Those are also there. I saw I witnessed cars run
over those curves, and these weren't necessarily drivers that were
looking to be speeding or anything illegal. They were very difficult.
It was very difficult to see because it's so dark
(11:02):
along this corridor of Seventh Street, because so many of
the street lights are out. So I'm assuming that these
ballards were added to prevent these crashes, to add another
safety component. But it gets to another point. The city
can't take care of its street lights either, in addition
to many other services, and that's because, as you also noted,
the city is broke, and as a guy who covers
city Hall, I don't know how they dig themselves out
(11:24):
of the financial mess they're in to fix these services
that people deal with every day, like potholes. What are
your thoughts on the city's financial condition.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Well, I have two thoughts.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
One, I think we could be spending the money we
have much more efficiently. I think, for example, going back
to curve ramps, I was talking to the head of
public Works for Dallas and I thought for sure they
were giving me the price without a zero in it.
When he told me their curve brams were three thousand
dollars four thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
I mean, for the same country, we should have access
to the same materials and services, and to have such
a dramatic price difference to another major city is a problem.
So Number one, where the city is working on charter
reform right now, we need to reorganize our city departments
to spend the pressures dollars we do have much more efficiently.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
We're not efficient right now.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
We waste a lot of money, and with curve around specifically,
we over engineer them. Number Two, we need our city
leadership to have some fiscal responsibility. When you give massive raises.
I'm not saying they didn't deserve the raises, but when
you give massive raises to LAPD, LAFD and civil servants,
civil servants with no plan to pay for them, just
(12:33):
hoping that we'll figure it out. That's not prudent fiscal planning.
That's what happened under this mayor. And so all of
a sudden, the bills team doue. We didn't have the money.
We class a departments to the bone just to be
able to afford the raises that we couldn't afford. And
now we're in this vicious doom loop where because we're
(12:54):
not maintaining our streets, we're paying out more and more
in lawsuits due to potholes and other things unsafe street conditions.
And it's not going to be long if we continue
at this pace where all of a sudden we're going
to be paying more in lawsuit settlements than we are
in fixing the streets. That's going to be tragic when
that day comes, or we're not that far away from it.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I raised that point a lot when I'm on the
talk shows here at KFI. It's that there's this irony
that we're spending so much on lawsuits, and because of that,
you can't fix the problems that are leading to the lawsuits.
A lot of these cases are what they characterize or
categorize as trip and fall because somebody has been injured
on city infrastructure, and you call it, I think a
(13:35):
doom loop. I don't see how it's going to get
better next year because the financial condition has not been addressed,
and they've added this significant amount of pressure to their
budget by approving the convention center expansion, which I'm very
anxious to see how these budget conversations go next spring.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
The convention center expansion is one of the most fiscally
irresponsible things I've ever seen. Maybe we should expand our
convention center. Maybe it's not competitive with other major cities,
that's all fine, But should we bankrupt our general fund
even more for decades to expand it? Right now, it's
not a priority. Angelina's have other priorities and expanding the
convention center. I don't understand whether Mayor was pushing for
(14:14):
this budget share. Katie or Aspovski gave it a very
impassioned speech at how absurdly irresponsible this was.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Unfortunately it's still passed.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
But it's kind of so like there's multiple things going
on at the same time when we are our own
worst enemy because we're not doing fiscally prudent things, and
everyone's just kicking the can down the road saying we'll
figure it out next year, or we'll just cut some fat.
There's no more fat to cut. I mean, when you
have a city that's saying maybe we can't pick up
the trash every week, maybe we need to go to
every other week to survive. That's a material difference in
(14:44):
Angelina's quality of life, and unfortunately we're kind of doing
that thinking across all city departments right now.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yep, kicking the can down the road is right, and
that can is more than likely to hit a pothole
on the way, as you know. To end this La
Times op ed, you're not imagining it. L has surrendered
to the potholes. That's the title of the op ed
published in the La Times, co written by Michael Schneider,
who is the founder and chief executive of Streets for All. Michael,
(15:10):
I'm grateful for the time you gave us. I appreciate
the work you're doing, and hopefully there is some change
on the horizon so that some basic city services are
more appropriately addressed. Thank you for talking to KFI today,
Thanks for having me up next. The op ed in
the La Times has a second author, orn Hdar joins
us to talk about the dangers of LA's streets.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
This is Michael Monk's reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've been talking about the condition of LA streets and
how the city hasn't repaved any of its roads this
fiscal year, deciding instead to do some patchwork. The city's
financial struggles are well documented, but they have real life consequences.
Orin Hdar is the publisher of the Future is La,
(15:57):
which can be found at future is He joins us. Now, Ornhadar,
thank you so much for taking some time for KFI.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
You bet my pleasure, all right.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So we talked to your co author about the conditions
of Los Angeles's streets and this op ed you both
published in the La Times. It's just so damning as
to the city's priorities and abilities to deliver basic services,
especially as it relates to our infrastructure. But this is
something you've been on for a long time. You have
written a lot about it, and it seems to be
(16:31):
an unfortunate truth because there's just so many continuing problems,
some of them very very serious. Just very recently you
wrote a story about a gentleman who was hurt very
severely in the Arts District. What can you tell us
about that?
Speaker 7 (16:46):
Yeah, so this guy Alan is himself a safe streets advocate,
So he works with this organization called Streets for All,
which advocates for, you know, just making our streets safer
for everyone.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
In and out of a car.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
And he's was actually on his way to Streets for
All's holiday party in the Arts District downtown, and he
was riding his scooter and he was riding it down
a bike lane that on a street that had been
recently repaved, except it hadn't been fully repaved. It had
(17:24):
just they had just repaved kind of the strip of
asphalt closest to the curb. And the way they did it,
they kind of like patched a certain area of it.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Kind of like a patch within a patch, you can
think of it.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
And that patch, basically, over about a year, turned into
a giant pothole. And this poor guy on his scooter
and he wasn't even going full speed because his scooter
was low battery. He hit this pothole and basically flew
off his scooter, face.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Planet on the asphalt.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
He was wearing a helmet, but he still he broke
in his wrist, forearm, and shoulder and his front two teeth.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Okay, obviously a terrible, terrible accident. But the irony that
this is a streets advocate, a safe streets advocate going
to a Safe Streets organization holiday party and suffers those
extreme injuries. I suppose there's a legal case involved here.
Speaker 7 (18:24):
Yeah, And I mean, you know, I know, yeah, I can't.
I don't know much about the details of that. I'm
not a lawyer, but it seems like a pretty good case.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Well, yeah, the only reason I wanted to bring it
up is because, I mean, it's sad. It's terrible because
the city is continuously, you know, paying out these massive
settlements to lawsuits that are classified as trip and fall,
but they tend to be related to sidewalk and road
infrastructure where people suffer serious injuries. Trip and fall really
(18:56):
downplays some of the injuries that people are suffering on
these roads. And so the city is paying out these
massive sums, which is putting a bigger dent into its
general fund that it's supposed to use to fix these streets.
And so we're in this circular situation where the city
doesn't have the money to pay to fix the problems
that are causing the lawsuits. That's reducing the amount of
(19:17):
money they have.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
And then the worst part is that because they've stopped
repaving the streets, which we can get into why, that's
just going to make it even worse. And so, you
know what happened to this guy Allen is going to
happen to thousands more people and then we're going to
be paying even more money down the road. And then
the other crazy part is that generally when they settle
(19:42):
a lawsuit, one of the terms of the settlement is you.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Have to go fix that pothole.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
So everything's going to get fixed eventually because the city
will be forced to by the settlements anyway.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
So why not just do it in the first place.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Our guest is Aornhdar who's the publisher of the Future
is La. I want to talk a bit about why
you think the city is falling so far behind on
fixing this infrastructure. We kind of touch on the fact
that it doesn't have any money and so that's a problem.
Also there may be a situation involving priorities, but you
(20:16):
also suggest that one of the reasons that they've stopped
repaving streets may be illegal or is probably illegal, which
part of that is illegal.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
So the you know, the city stopped repaving streets in July,
if they didn't suddenly run out of money for repaving
streets in July. In fact, what they've done is they've
shifted their budget from full repaving to patching. Basically, they
had came up with this term large asphalt repair, but
it's basically patching. It's maybe paving like half of a
(20:49):
block and like one lane of the of the street.
And the reason they're doing this is because the federal
government says when you fully repay a street, you have
to fix the curve ramps, you know, the ada ramps
that let disabled people go up and down from the
sidewalk to the street. And in La you know, a
(21:14):
huge percentage of those curve bramps are not up to date.
The easy way to tell is whether there's one of
those yellow bumpy rectangles right at the bottom of the ramp.
If it's not there, then that curve bramp is probably
like twenty thirty years old. And so what that means
basically is every time the city repays the street. They
have to fix these curve brams, and that can double
(21:34):
or triple the cost of repaving the street. So when
the federal government basically came down and said you have
to start doing this, that's when the city said, well,
maybe we'll just stop repaving completely.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
So it seems like some sort of loophole work around
that they found in order to not have to do
exactly what that voter approved measure directed.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Them to do.
Speaker 7 (21:55):
So the voter approved measure is actually something else, so
that that pressure is coming from the set federal government.
What the voters approved was we did this in spring
of twenty twenty four. We've voted for a measure HLA,
which passed like a two to one ratio. It was
a big, you know, kind of a landslide victory, and
that basically says, you know, the city in twenty fifteen
(22:17):
came up with this mobility plan of like some streets
should have bike lanes, some streets should have bus lanes,
and then the city basically promptly ignored that plan and
didn't install anything. So the voter said, we have this
plan city, you need to implement it. And the way
we're going to force you to implement. It is really simple.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Every time you.
Speaker 7 (22:37):
Repay the street, just put in the lines for whatever
is on the mobility plan. So if it's supposed to
be a bike lane, just put an extra line for
a bike lane. So it sounded like, oh, it'll be free.
Well it turns out that the city, if the city
stops repaving, then it also can avoid putting in all
the stuff that's.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
On the mobility plan.
Speaker 7 (22:58):
So the irony is that we're not repaving streets basically
in order to avoid doing things to keep all the
other people who use the streets safe. So, in other words,
we're making it harder for pedestrians because we're not fixing
curve brams. We're making harder for cyclists and bus riders
(23:19):
because we're not putting a bike in bus lanes. So
it hurts the drivers because the actual pavement sucks, and
then it hurts everybody else use the street because the
city isn't willing to put in the infrastructure to keep
everybody else safe.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Well, we will welcome you back here for sure, very soon,
I hope, because I'd like to dive more into that
and some other observations that you might have orin thank
you so much for the time that you gave us
in and good luck out there.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
All right, Michael, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Up next, if your New Year resolutions include finding love,
it turns out there's a very specific date that could
be best to do that, but you better be ready.
It is very soon.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Your New Year resolutions may include a new job, making
more money, eating better and exercising, traveling, or finding love.
If you're looking for a mate. There are plenty of
fish in the sea, and they're all apparently swimming Tomorrow.
ABC's j O'Brien spoke with the founder of the Dating Academy,
Bella Gandhi.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
This Sunday, right January fourth, from what I have heard,
is going to be what the busiest online dating day
of the year.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Is that right?
Speaker 8 (24:33):
It's predicted to be.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
So Sunday's are always the busiest day, Jay, and forty
eight percent of Americans are unmarried for the census, So
as we're making resolutions tomorrow, falling in love is surely
going to be in one of the top five.
Speaker 8 (24:50):
So Sunday is going to be a massive day.
Speaker 9 (24:53):
The apps predict a fifty to eighty percent surge in
memberships on Sunday.
Speaker 8 (24:59):
Some apps have it predicted.
Speaker 9 (25:01):
That eight fifty two pm Eastern Standard times are going
to be the busiest moment of the busiest day. There's
a lot of data behind this, So if you're ready
to find love, Sunday could be your day.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
For the kids out there, we're going to get into
red flags and green flags in one second.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
But I do have an advice question to ask you,
which is.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
For someone who's looking for love in the new year
in twenty twenty six, I mean, what should they do?
Speaker 4 (25:24):
What are the best practices here?
Speaker 9 (25:27):
Well, first of all, you need, like for anything you
want to be successful at, you've got to have a plan. Okay,
so have a dating plan. And on Sunday you definitely
want to get on the apps one or two maximum.
And then also for twenty twenty six, think about if
you want to find love, how you can go to
events where you can meet.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
People that are like minded in real life.
Speaker 9 (25:50):
And the third way is get your friends, your family,
maybe the super connectors in your life that like connecting people,
have them start to set you up on dates with
great people.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So what are as I said we were going to
get into this.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Some of the biggest red flags and green flags for
folks when they're looking at who should be a long
term partner. You know, they meet someone on the app
or maybe in New Year's Eve tonight, what should they
be looking for?
Speaker 9 (26:17):
Well, well, when you're on dates, look to see number
one that you're aligned with what this person wants and
they're aligned with what you want. If you're looking for
a long term, committed, monogamous relationship that leads to marriage,
make sure that.
Speaker 8 (26:33):
They are too.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
And if you're not sure, a lot of the apps,
if you meet somebody there will answer that question for
you because people can say what they're looking for, but
it's a red flag. If you're not looking for the
same thing they're looking for, then it might.
Speaker 8 (26:47):
Be time for you to move on. And here's the one.
Speaker 9 (26:51):
If somebody on their app says they're not looking for drama,
chances are they're going to be the one that's going
to cause you drama. So that's always a flag from
my clients at Smart Dating Academy.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
That's also a red flag for employees of ABC News.
Usually when people say I don't cause a lot of
drama in the workplace.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
But I digress.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
So I have heard this rumor about you, which is
that of your clients, the ones who have gotten.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Married, is it right that zero have been divorced?
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Is that true? What's your secret there? Look?
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Who went to dating school?
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Right?
Speaker 9 (27:24):
So when I was young, I had to figure it out.
So I put together my own model, which led me
to my husband. We've been married for twenty eight years.
I started teaching everybody around me that would listen, and
sixteen years ago I found it Smart Dating Academy to
teach people that there is, indeed a right way to
look for partners that make you happy. What I call
(27:45):
it is a good live to your pott.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
So for folks who are sick of maybe dating apps,
I know we talked about getting on them starting on
the fourth.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
But for those who have said.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I'm fed up with those, should they get back on
them or is there another alternative for them to maybe
meet someone in real life?
Speaker 4 (28:04):
What should they do?
Speaker 10 (28:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (28:06):
I think right now, you'll hear a lot about dating
app fatigue. Right, people feel like there's no good people
out there. I promise you there are great people on
the apps. But if you're tired of it, go to Google,
Go to meet up. Look for things in your area
that you're interested in doing. Maybe that's wine tasting, maybe
that's a running club. Join things where you put yourself
(28:27):
in a room with like minded people doing things that
bring you joy.
Speaker 8 (28:31):
Because guess what, when you're.
Speaker 9 (28:33):
Feeling good and happy, you are your most magnetic and attractive.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Bella Gandhi with some great advice dating advice into the
new year. Thank you so much, Happy New Year to you.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
And good luck to all you would be love birds.
Get those phones dusted off, the profile picks ready and
start swiping. But if you're already with someone, it's a
great weekend for the cinema or little Netflix and chill.
ABC's Mike Dubuski has the highlights.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
ABC Entertainment News.
Speaker 10 (29:02):
It's the first weekend of the new year, and with
it comes a lot of new movies and TV shows
to throw on your watch list. Mother of God, the
series finale of Stranger Things, is finally out on Netflix.
The epic conclusion to the long running sci fi series
Fine stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfard, David Harber, Wenona Ryder,
and the rest of the Gang uniting to defeat Bechna once.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
And for all, Dark Kids, not a trust changers like
it else? Who Said I Trust You?
Speaker 10 (29:29):
Also on Netflix, the latest Harlan Coben adaptation is the
new series Runaway, which follows a web of secrets and
the search for a missing daughter.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
So What's with Eli?
Speaker 10 (29:41):
In theaters, there's the new movie The Plague, a horror
film that takes place at an all boys water polo camp.
And if you missed the year ABC's retrospective on twenty
twenty five, hosted by Robin Roberts, you can catch it
now on Disney Plus and Hulu like Debuski, ABC News.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
And next week on Wednesday, KFI A six will bring
you La Wildfires one Year Later or Special, on the
anniversary of last January's destructive wildfires. Our news team here
worked on this to bring you stories from the Palisades
and Altadena, including the ongoing struggles people are facing as
they try to rebuild their lives and their homes. It
(30:18):
will air Wednesday from seven to nine pm, and then
I'll be on Live from nine to ten to talk
more about where we stand right now. The special will
air again next Saturday night from seven to nine in
place of this show and We'll be back with another
live edition of Michael Monks Reports in two weeks. We
hope you'll join us then.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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