March 3, 2025 • 23 mins
(March 03, 2025)
Home-selling season starts after L.A wildfires… and there is demand. Dead athletes, empty sands: Why are we paying billions to keep this sport alive? Changing tastes, cheap imports and looming Canadian boycott. A \perfect storm’ for California’s wine industry.
Home-selling season starts after L.A wildfires… and there is demand. Dead athletes, empty sands: Why are we paying billions to keep this sport alive? Changing tastes, cheap imports and looming Canadian boycott. A \perfect storm’ for California’s wine industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. I AM six forty bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Here. It is a Monday morning, March third. Some of
the big stories we are covering. President Trump is going
to address a joint session of Congress tomorrow and the
oddsmakers are figuring out how many Ukrainian jokes are you
going to hear?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And I'm guessing at least three.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And you've got measles in Texas one hundred and fifty cases.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And now you've got Robert Robert F.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Kennedy Junior, a HHS secretary, saying okay, we have something
serious here, as opposed to that first Cabinet medium where
he said, now this is not unusual at all. So
things are changing. Now.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's home selling season. This is when.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Holmes are cranking up because you've got spring showing up
and people are ready to go, and the kids are
going to be out of school soon, and it's a
good time to buy a house and to sell your house.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So there are more than.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Eighty new listings in Pacific Palisades in Altadena hit the
market since mid February. These are land parcels, These are
commanding selling prices. Above what was expected because frankly, what
(01:29):
a lot of experts, real estate people said, Yeah, you're
gonna get about half the value.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
There's nothing there.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Your home has to be rebuilt and I'll talk about
that in a second, and infrastructure has to be put in.
And even if you build your own house, the guy
next door is not gonna be able to build his
or across the street, and it's not going to be
a fun neighborhood to live to live in. So the
first parcels in the neighborhoods did sell at a slight
discount prior to the pre fire evaluations. What land sellers
(02:00):
are asking for now is basically the same value or
even above the land's estimated pre fire valuation. Now, one
of the things you have to keep in mind is
the land part of a house is worth between forty
and sixty percent of the overall value in LA.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So figure out your house.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
If it's a million dollar house and you live in
a shack, welcome to southern California, and you have a
lot that's ten feet square, forty to sixty percent of
the value of your house is the land value. So
you've got early sales a small proportion of the thousands
of burned homes been sold.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So is this a trend? We don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But these are the first signs of residents making permanent decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Are they going to stay? Are they going to leave?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I guarantee you that every homeowner in southern California and
the Palisades and Malibu.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
In Altadena would love to stay there.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
No one is saying I don't want to be there,
all things equal, except.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
For the people that wanted to sell, and are there
how many of those?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
The problem is they've got some real challenges, some real challenges.
Who's buying these parcels well, mainly small to midsize real
estate investors and developers who are going to either flip
the houses or flip the vacant land, or build single
(03:32):
family homes to sell later on speculators, but not massive corporations,
because you're not going to see tracks of homes that
you normally see out in the Inland Empire or out
in Ventura where you have these cookie cutter homes, and
a lot of people live in cookie cutter homes. And
(03:53):
by the way, a lot of these these parcels include
partially damaged homes. They're hitting the market and that is
a whole different world. When you have just land and
then you have a home that is partially damaged. Just
land means you're gonna have to meet all the codes,
(04:16):
but you can build anything you.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Want on it.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Partially damaged, you pretty well have to stay within the
same footprint, and but you don't have I don't think
you're held to the same code restrictions. So land prices
at this point for the Riviera neighborhood, this is a
very high end neighborhood in the Palisades. There's a country
(04:39):
club nearby. Those have actually appreciated since the fire is
by ten percent, which no one really expected. Property values
are going to come back even more because once the
neighborhoods are fully reconstructed and are fire proofed. Because any
(04:59):
new building is going to have a whole lot restrictions
that have to be incorporated into the building of the house.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You're going to have.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
They won't have eaves, for example, there will not be
planting with anything that could ignite, you know, palm trees
around my house.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
We have nothing but palm trees that can just ignite.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Eucalyptus trees, you know, they explode, They explode when they
catch on fire because the sap inside the trees burn
so hot so quickly that it's like a bomb was
placed into that tree, and then the embers fly for miles.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So you won't see those. What you'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is cactus, a lot of cactus which not only is
truly fire resistant, but tastes pretty good, doesn't it, neil
No poly cactus, prickly pear cactus.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's quite tasty. Yeah, yes it is. So you'll be
able to salads.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yes, so you'll be able to not only withstand a fire,
but you also have a bunch of salad makings as
the fire goes through, and it will not burn your
house up.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I want to come back and spend a few more
minutes talking about this because there are some parts of
this story that we are kind of heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
At the same time.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
This is what we're going to see, and as usual,
people who don't have money heretofore were homeowners are going
to get screwed, particularly minorities, particularly a big black neighborhood
a blick, A big African American neighborhood in Altadena. Did
I say a big black neighborhood again.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Big black neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, a big and then a black neighborhood where African
Americans live. Did I misspeak on that one district is
a big jew neighborhood? It used to be, it was
absolutely Now it's a big Korean neighborhood, although Koreans are
not that big.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
But yeah, raised you, I mean it was lea.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Everybody is so sensitive you cannot say, I mean, thank goodness,
we are going back to the days when you can
say things that otherwise that are not racist, that are
considered Oh you racist?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You How dare you say that it's.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
A black neighborhood and it's a big black neighborhood?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
What the hell is wrong with that? Okay?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Now I want to go back to another story, of
another chapter in the story of the homes that were
destroyed in Altadena, in the Palisades, in Malibu, some in Calabasas.
And they're selling the lots, and they're selling for more
(08:00):
money than anyone anticipated. They're up to the same value
that they were before. Not that there were lots, but
if you look at the equation a house, the land
value of a house is forty to sixty percent of
the entire value of a home. So right there, that's
where these properties are selling for now. Once the neighborhood
(08:24):
is rebuilt, fully reconstructed, and fire proofed, then you're going
to see property values explode and you're going to see
people buying like crazy. So why would someone sell if
they wanted to stay. Well, some people are going to
(08:44):
be forced to leave, even if they are insured. Very
rarely does insurance cover the entire cost of rebuilding or repairing.
I do that in a commercial when I talk about
how it's tough dealing with insurance companies.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It is.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
There's that issue. Also, you have people that may be
waiting years. How many contractors you think there are, We're
talking ten thousand homes, it's and you still pay mortgage
on the home. Keep in mind now there'll be some
programs that are going to help out homeowners, and people
simply say, we've got to get out of here. We
(09:25):
cannot wait for years, we cannot deal with this. I mean,
it's already the toughest place in the country by far
to build with the restrictions. Now they're going to loosen up,
but you still have expensive, expensive homes. And then the
issue of you know, what do you do with all
(09:47):
this land. Do you go back where these zillion dollar homes,
these homeowners are going to build these tremendous mansions and
great homes, or do you take that land and you
basically have developers come in and you make cookie cutter tracks.
They don't even know what that's happening. The worst hit
area is Alta Dina. Alta Dina has probably it's the
(10:10):
largest black population African American population in southern California. Generations
have lived on those properties, three generations, four generations owning
the home. These are not people that could buy a
house or maintain mortgages. But insurance has gotten to be exorbitant.
(10:30):
Can they have I don't know what the stats are
for home insurance prior to the burning of Alta Dina.
But as usual, African Americans minorities, particularly after African Americans,
Americans getting nailed across the board. And the reason Alta
Dina has so many African Americans, it was one of
the few areas that wasn't redlined, and so you had
(10:55):
this black population and they're going and it was wiped out.
I mean, those homes are wiped out, and now what
do you do because you have people who are homeowners
that wouldn't be homeowners but for the fact that these
homes have been have been owned by generations, because you're
(11:16):
talking about a socioeconomic level that simply doesn't it can't
support what normal homeowners would be And what do you
do with that and the cost of rebuilding insurance. I
told you that the Persian Palace before I sold it
(11:37):
was my insurance lapsed. I think it was State Farm
and they stopped selling insurance. They just said, no, you know,
we're not going to give you insurance. And I was
bare for two and a half weeks, no homeowners. Man,
did I sleep well for two and a half weeks
knowing if the place burnt down, I was on my own.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And I finally got insurance for twice as much less coverage.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
It would be about three quarters of what it would
cost me to rebuild my house. That's Those are all
the problems we're having in southern California. And we're gonna
look at Altadena, and we're gonna look at Palisades, particularly Palisades. Well, no,
for different reasons, different reasons. We're gonna see just a
(12:20):
whole new chapter in building homes. Okay, Hey, I want
to tell you about this, and suggested this because she
is a horse person and her daughter makes her living
with horses. And I made the bad joke about her
daughter is a chef in France, and I had to repeat.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That because that's so funny.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So here is a question, all right, what sport do
you have where basically no one shows up, where very
few people show up, The athletes die in droves. They go,
wait a minute, what's that about horse racing? Horse racing?
And let me tell you what's going on with horse racing.
(13:02):
It's a story out of the New York Times. It
talks about Yonkers Raceway, and it's a raceway still going on.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's a mile long harness race.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And if you go there, you'll see a few dozen
spectators during a race. At the sports peak, there were
tens of thousands there, now less than one fortieth. So
the horses take their two laps, they race, and they
head back down the runway and then they exit and
(13:34):
there's nobody there. How do they afford that? Well, let
me tell you about this industry. In two thousand and one,
New York State agreed to hand out new licenses to
operate slot machines. Well, the racing crowd came in and said,
(13:54):
a chunk of the proceeds go to us because the
lobby was so strong. So the horse racing folks get
millions of dollars from proceeds off of the gambling that
goes on once it was legalized, and all of a
sudden you're seeing these little tracks with nobody there.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Can you imagine a.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Professional baseball team or a football team that two hundred
people show up and the purses are still big. Now,
where does horse racing make money? The Kentucky Derby, the
Belmont Santa Nita because they have the crowds. But the
Kentucky Derby is one race a year, that's it. So
(14:42):
how do you make money with one football game a year,
even though it is wildly popular.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You can't. And it's only horse racing that happens.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
And it's because of this fluke, and it's because of
what the horse racing industry has done.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The other thing about horse racing, particularly.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Thoroughbred although across the board with horse racing, the number
of horses that die, that are killed, what's this? Saratoga
is another good one, By the way, the number of
horses read here in this article says in the last
ten years, eleven thousand horses have been destroyed.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I mean, keep in mind, you got these thoroughbreds.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I mean, just look at the just look at the
physiology of the horse. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Physiology? Yeah, the physical makeup of a horse.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You've got two thousand pounds running at breakneck speed, and
they're on four legs, of which the ankles are basically
the size of a coke bottle. Two thousand pounds on
that and if a horse stumbles or trips, it's over
for that horse. They have to destroy the horse. And
(15:59):
so I don't even what is insurance on a horse
that's worth four hundred thousand dollars. I can't even imagine
what insurance must be like. I mean, it's really a
sport for kings in the sense that very few people
make money. Rich rich people make money doing it, and
you know horse racing people at all.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
No, I'm more in the English riding world. So all
the riders have bad teeth. No, But I'm not a
fan of this.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I mean, they start these poor thoroughbreds out when they're
about three years old.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, but they love racing. I mean they love it,
don't they. Yeah, of course they do.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You can see how much they love it as they're
being whipped and frothing at the mouth.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
A lot of these vets also say that these there's.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
There's basically no horse racing that isn't wounded in some
way or has an injury because it's just they're running
them so early and so fast.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I mean, I know people who pay to be whipped
and they're frothing at the mouth and enjoy it. But
that is a different topic that we will do at
a different time.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
All Right, We're done. Had to end on that note.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Okay, Hey, it's the Handle show, right, I get ache.
There was one on Instagram saying Handle is crude, he
is horrible, He makes the sexual and racist and anti
animal jokes and is just the wordst worst person in
the world and should be fired.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And I agree, I completely agree. That was from your fiancee.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
That was it was, so keep those instagrams coming, by
the way, I really do enjoy this. Okay, Let's finish
up with some big, big problems and something in a
field in an industry that was spectacular for us in California,
the wine industry, a perfect storm has hit the wine
(18:05):
industry is reeling now and this was a thirty year
growth year after year.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
What is going on.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, let's go back a little bit in history and
talk about what happened in nineteen seventy six. Every year
in France, the wine experts, the wine lovers, they have
a wine tasting festival and it's known as the festival
in the world, and it's always French wines.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
That one.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, nineteen seventy six, and by the way, these are
blind testings. California, Napa, Sonoma came up with the best
wines in the world at a fraction of the cost.
And France, of course, went into a tailspin and once
again surrendered to the Germans because.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's all you know how to do.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And the California wine industry exploded and it grew, and
it grew like crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well that changed.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
You have vineyards that have just shut down, destroying lines,
not selling, not selling their wines for a whole number
of reasons. It's being described as a perfect storm. Starting
with wine was good for you a glass or two
of wine. Now the medical research saying nah, even a
(19:31):
small amount of alcohol consumption of any kind potentially dangerous. Also,
wine producers in California. We're looking at imports, a surge
of imports, not just from Italy and France, which have
always been traditional in exporters and we import the wine.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
But you've got players from New.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Zealand, Argentina, Chili which are producing better and better wine.
South Africa producing a very good wine. Central Valley which
specializes in producing grapes for inexpensive wines under eleven dollars
a bottle.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Those have been hard hit the hardest. The very high
end wines are still doing okay. The inexpensive wines.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
My favorite wine Thunderbird, that you have to drink out
of a bottle, and it has to be in a
paper bag that you guzzle, usually on street corners.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's, for some reason not happening.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
When's the last time you saw it, like a homeless
person right sitting on a corner, an alcoholic. You don't
see them drinking out of paper bag. Those wines are done.
When's the last time you saw two buck Chuck wines
which are now at six seven dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Those are gone. It's just it's not the same.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
You know. Eighty five percent of wines produced in the
United States are from California and well, don't look at
the grape growers.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Look at the wineries.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Just are shutting down like crazy, and they're falling year
after year. Also, mechanization, grapes are now mostly picked by
machine that I.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Didn't know that machines are the ones that now pick grapes.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I thought grapes are always illegal aliens bending down and
having the horrible back problems for the rest of their lives,
and the rest of us screaming uvas, No, that's not
the case anymore. Now it's Caterpillar Company. No, with the
(21:45):
industrial machines. The US is the biggest wine market in
the world. We're struggling more than most, California struggling the
most of all.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And it's just it's tough. It's really tough.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
The days when Napa Sonoma were on top of the
world with wine. By the way, California wines are as
good as they've ever been, But you have wines that
are just as good coming in from other parts of
the world. And then we have the tariffs coming in
that's going to raise prices. Also, you have young people.
(22:24):
The demographics have changed. Young people are going to seltzers
and flavored all kinds of stuff that they're doing, Neil,
you've talked about that where you have folks that are
taking the hard seltzers and other drinks that heretofore were
there were wine drinkers.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's done.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
It's over as a matter of fact, So were we
all right? Coming up tomorrow? We're sort of done with
a show. First of all, you got Gary and Shannon
and they're going to be here in just a moment
at the top of the hour, and they're going to
cover a ten twenty Huntington Park corruption update and they've
been following that story.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
We, on the other.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Hand, are going to be following all the other stories
and we've got a lot to cover. So it starts
tomorrow morning at five am. Wake up call with Amy.
At six am, Neil and I we come aboard and
do the show until right about now, and of course
kno and and will Cole Schreiber. Okay, now that I
(23:28):
can see him and we have some kind of a
monitor going No, it's okay, let me tell you something.
This is a mercy Ship strip. Okay, it's this is
just for you. Okay, We're done, guys, catch you in
the morning. KFI am six you've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show, Catch My Show Monday through Friday six
(23:49):
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. I AM six forty bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Here. It is a Monday morning, March third. Some of
the big stories we are covering. President Trump is going
to address a joint session of Congress tomorrow and the
oddsmakers are figuring out how many Ukrainian jokes are you
going to hear?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And I'm guessing at least three.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And you've got measles in Texas one hundred and fifty cases.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And now you've got Robert Robert F.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Kennedy Junior, a HHS secretary, saying okay, we have something
serious here, as opposed to that first Cabinet medium where
he said, now this is not unusual at all. So
things are changing. Now.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's home selling season. This is when.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Holmes are cranking up because you've got spring showing up
and people are ready to go, and the kids are
going to be out of school soon, and it's a
good time to buy a house and to sell your house.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So there are more than.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Eighty new listings in Pacific Palisades in Altadena hit the
market since mid February. These are land parcels, These are
commanding selling prices. Above what was expected because frankly, what
(01:29):
a lot of experts, real estate people said, Yeah, you're
gonna get about half the value.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
There's nothing there.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Your home has to be rebuilt and I'll talk about
that in a second, and infrastructure has to be put in.
And even if you build your own house, the guy
next door is not gonna be able to build his
or across the street, and it's not going to be
a fun neighborhood to live to live in. So the
first parcels in the neighborhoods did sell at a slight
discount prior to the pre fire evaluations. What land sellers
(02:00):
are asking for now is basically the same value or
even above the land's estimated pre fire valuation. Now, one
of the things you have to keep in mind is
the land part of a house is worth between forty
and sixty percent of the overall value in LA.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So figure out your house.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
If it's a million dollar house and you live in
a shack, welcome to southern California, and you have a
lot that's ten feet square, forty to sixty percent of
the value of your house is the land value. So
you've got early sales a small proportion of the thousands
of burned homes been sold.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So is this a trend? We don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But these are the first signs of residents making permanent decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Are they going to stay? Are they going to leave?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I guarantee you that every homeowner in southern California and
the Palisades and Malibu.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
In Altadena would love to stay there.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
No one is saying I don't want to be there,
all things equal, except.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
For the people that wanted to sell, and are there
how many of those?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
The problem is they've got some real challenges, some real challenges.
Who's buying these parcels well, mainly small to midsize real
estate investors and developers who are going to either flip
the houses or flip the vacant land, or build single
(03:32):
family homes to sell later on speculators, but not massive corporations,
because you're not going to see tracks of homes that
you normally see out in the Inland Empire or out
in Ventura where you have these cookie cutter homes, and
a lot of people live in cookie cutter homes. And
(03:53):
by the way, a lot of these these parcels include
partially damaged homes. They're hitting the market and that is
a whole different world. When you have just land and
then you have a home that is partially damaged. Just
land means you're gonna have to meet all the codes,
(04:16):
but you can build anything you.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Want on it.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Partially damaged, you pretty well have to stay within the
same footprint, and but you don't have I don't think
you're held to the same code restrictions. So land prices
at this point for the Riviera neighborhood, this is a
very high end neighborhood in the Palisades. There's a country
(04:39):
club nearby. Those have actually appreciated since the fire is
by ten percent, which no one really expected. Property values
are going to come back even more because once the
neighborhoods are fully reconstructed and are fire proofed. Because any
(04:59):
new building is going to have a whole lot restrictions
that have to be incorporated into the building of the house.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You're going to have.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
They won't have eaves, for example, there will not be
planting with anything that could ignite, you know, palm trees
around my house.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
We have nothing but palm trees that can just ignite.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Eucalyptus trees, you know, they explode, They explode when they
catch on fire because the sap inside the trees burn
so hot so quickly that it's like a bomb was
placed into that tree, and then the embers fly for miles.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So you won't see those. What you'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is cactus, a lot of cactus which not only is
truly fire resistant, but tastes pretty good, doesn't it, neil
No poly cactus, prickly pear cactus.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's quite tasty. Yeah, yes it is. So you'll be
able to salads.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yes, so you'll be able to not only withstand a fire,
but you also have a bunch of salad makings as
the fire goes through, and it will not burn your
house up.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I want to come back and spend a few more
minutes talking about this because there are some parts of
this story that we are kind of heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
At the same time.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
This is what we're going to see, and as usual,
people who don't have money heretofore were homeowners are going
to get screwed, particularly minorities, particularly a big black neighborhood
a blick, A big African American neighborhood in Altadena. Did
I say a big black neighborhood again.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Big black neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, a big and then a black neighborhood where African
Americans live. Did I misspeak on that one district is
a big jew neighborhood? It used to be, it was
absolutely Now it's a big Korean neighborhood, although Koreans are
not that big.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
But yeah, raised you, I mean it was lea.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Everybody is so sensitive you cannot say, I mean, thank goodness,
we are going back to the days when you can
say things that otherwise that are not racist, that are
considered Oh you racist?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You How dare you say that it's.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
A black neighborhood and it's a big black neighborhood?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
What the hell is wrong with that? Okay?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Now I want to go back to another story, of
another chapter in the story of the homes that were
destroyed in Altadena, in the Palisades, in Malibu, some in Calabasas.
And they're selling the lots, and they're selling for more
(08:00):
money than anyone anticipated. They're up to the same value
that they were before. Not that there were lots, but
if you look at the equation a house, the land
value of a house is forty to sixty percent of
the entire value of a home. So right there, that's
where these properties are selling for now. Once the neighborhood
(08:24):
is rebuilt, fully reconstructed, and fire proofed, then you're going
to see property values explode and you're going to see
people buying like crazy. So why would someone sell if
they wanted to stay. Well, some people are going to
(08:44):
be forced to leave, even if they are insured. Very
rarely does insurance cover the entire cost of rebuilding or repairing.
I do that in a commercial when I talk about
how it's tough dealing with insurance companies.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It is.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
There's that issue. Also, you have people that may be
waiting years. How many contractors you think there are, We're
talking ten thousand homes, it's and you still pay mortgage
on the home. Keep in mind now there'll be some
programs that are going to help out homeowners, and people
simply say, we've got to get out of here. We
(09:25):
cannot wait for years, we cannot deal with this. I mean,
it's already the toughest place in the country by far
to build with the restrictions. Now they're going to loosen up,
but you still have expensive, expensive homes. And then the
issue of you know, what do you do with all
(09:47):
this land. Do you go back where these zillion dollar homes,
these homeowners are going to build these tremendous mansions and
great homes, or do you take that land and you
basically have developers come in and you make cookie cutter tracks.
They don't even know what that's happening. The worst hit
area is Alta Dina. Alta Dina has probably it's the
(10:10):
largest black population African American population in southern California. Generations
have lived on those properties, three generations, four generations owning
the home. These are not people that could buy a
house or maintain mortgages. But insurance has gotten to be exorbitant.
(10:30):
Can they have I don't know what the stats are
for home insurance prior to the burning of Alta Dina.
But as usual, African Americans minorities, particularly after African Americans,
Americans getting nailed across the board. And the reason Alta
Dina has so many African Americans, it was one of
the few areas that wasn't redlined, and so you had
(10:55):
this black population and they're going and it was wiped out.
I mean, those homes are wiped out, and now what
do you do because you have people who are homeowners
that wouldn't be homeowners but for the fact that these
homes have been have been owned by generations, because you're
(11:16):
talking about a socioeconomic level that simply doesn't it can't
support what normal homeowners would be And what do you
do with that and the cost of rebuilding insurance. I
told you that the Persian Palace before I sold it
(11:37):
was my insurance lapsed. I think it was State Farm
and they stopped selling insurance. They just said, no, you know,
we're not going to give you insurance. And I was
bare for two and a half weeks, no homeowners. Man,
did I sleep well for two and a half weeks
knowing if the place burnt down, I was on my own.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And I finally got insurance for twice as much less coverage.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
It would be about three quarters of what it would
cost me to rebuild my house. That's Those are all
the problems we're having in southern California. And we're gonna
look at Altadena, and we're gonna look at Palisades, particularly Palisades. Well, no,
for different reasons, different reasons. We're gonna see just a
(12:20):
whole new chapter in building homes. Okay, Hey, I want
to tell you about this, and suggested this because she
is a horse person and her daughter makes her living
with horses. And I made the bad joke about her
daughter is a chef in France, and I had to repeat.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That because that's so funny.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So here is a question, all right, what sport do
you have where basically no one shows up, where very
few people show up, The athletes die in droves. They go,
wait a minute, what's that about horse racing? Horse racing?
And let me tell you what's going on with horse racing.
(13:02):
It's a story out of the New York Times. It
talks about Yonkers Raceway, and it's a raceway still going on.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's a mile long harness race.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And if you go there, you'll see a few dozen
spectators during a race. At the sports peak, there were
tens of thousands there, now less than one fortieth. So
the horses take their two laps, they race, and they
head back down the runway and then they exit and
(13:34):
there's nobody there. How do they afford that? Well, let
me tell you about this industry. In two thousand and one,
New York State agreed to hand out new licenses to
operate slot machines. Well, the racing crowd came in and said,
(13:54):
a chunk of the proceeds go to us because the
lobby was so strong. So the horse racing folks get
millions of dollars from proceeds off of the gambling that
goes on once it was legalized, and all of a
sudden you're seeing these little tracks with nobody there.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Can you imagine a.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Professional baseball team or a football team that two hundred
people show up and the purses are still big. Now,
where does horse racing make money? The Kentucky Derby, the
Belmont Santa Nita because they have the crowds. But the
Kentucky Derby is one race a year, that's it. So
(14:42):
how do you make money with one football game a year,
even though it is wildly popular.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You can't. And it's only horse racing that happens.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
And it's because of this fluke, and it's because of
what the horse racing industry has done.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The other thing about horse racing, particularly.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Thoroughbred although across the board with horse racing, the number
of horses that die, that are killed, what's this? Saratoga
is another good one, By the way, the number of
horses read here in this article says in the last
ten years, eleven thousand horses have been destroyed.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I mean, keep in mind, you got these thoroughbreds.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I mean, just look at the just look at the
physiology of the horse. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Physiology? Yeah, the physical makeup of a horse.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You've got two thousand pounds running at breakneck speed, and
they're on four legs, of which the ankles are basically
the size of a coke bottle. Two thousand pounds on
that and if a horse stumbles or trips, it's over
for that horse. They have to destroy the horse. And
(15:59):
so I don't even what is insurance on a horse
that's worth four hundred thousand dollars. I can't even imagine
what insurance must be like. I mean, it's really a
sport for kings in the sense that very few people
make money. Rich rich people make money doing it, and
you know horse racing people at all.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
No, I'm more in the English riding world. So all
the riders have bad teeth. No, But I'm not a
fan of this.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I mean, they start these poor thoroughbreds out when they're
about three years old.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, but they love racing. I mean they love it,
don't they. Yeah, of course they do.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You can see how much they love it as they're
being whipped and frothing at the mouth.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
A lot of these vets also say that these there's.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
There's basically no horse racing that isn't wounded in some
way or has an injury because it's just they're running
them so early and so fast.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I mean, I know people who pay to be whipped
and they're frothing at the mouth and enjoy it. But
that is a different topic that we will do at
a different time.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
All Right, We're done. Had to end on that note.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Okay, Hey, it's the Handle show, right, I get ache.
There was one on Instagram saying Handle is crude, he
is horrible, He makes the sexual and racist and anti
animal jokes and is just the wordst worst person in
the world and should be fired.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And I agree, I completely agree. That was from your fiancee.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
That was it was, so keep those instagrams coming, by
the way, I really do enjoy this. Okay, Let's finish
up with some big, big problems and something in a
field in an industry that was spectacular for us in California,
the wine industry, a perfect storm has hit the wine
(18:05):
industry is reeling now and this was a thirty year
growth year after year.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
What is going on.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, let's go back a little bit in history and
talk about what happened in nineteen seventy six. Every year
in France, the wine experts, the wine lovers, they have
a wine tasting festival and it's known as the festival
in the world, and it's always French wines.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
That one.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, nineteen seventy six, and by the way, these are
blind testings. California, Napa, Sonoma came up with the best
wines in the world at a fraction of the cost.
And France, of course, went into a tailspin and once
again surrendered to the Germans because.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's all you know how to do.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And the California wine industry exploded and it grew, and
it grew like crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well that changed.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
You have vineyards that have just shut down, destroying lines,
not selling, not selling their wines for a whole number
of reasons. It's being described as a perfect storm. Starting
with wine was good for you a glass or two
of wine. Now the medical research saying nah, even a
(19:31):
small amount of alcohol consumption of any kind potentially dangerous. Also,
wine producers in California. We're looking at imports, a surge
of imports, not just from Italy and France, which have
always been traditional in exporters and we import the wine.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
But you've got players from New.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Zealand, Argentina, Chili which are producing better and better wine.
South Africa producing a very good wine. Central Valley which
specializes in producing grapes for inexpensive wines under eleven dollars
a bottle.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Those have been hard hit the hardest. The very high
end wines are still doing okay. The inexpensive wines.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
My favorite wine Thunderbird, that you have to drink out
of a bottle, and it has to be in a
paper bag that you guzzle, usually on street corners.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's, for some reason not happening.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
When's the last time you saw it, like a homeless
person right sitting on a corner, an alcoholic. You don't
see them drinking out of paper bag. Those wines are done.
When's the last time you saw two buck Chuck wines
which are now at six seven dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Those are gone. It's just it's not the same.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
You know. Eighty five percent of wines produced in the
United States are from California and well, don't look at
the grape growers.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Look at the wineries.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Just are shutting down like crazy, and they're falling year
after year. Also, mechanization, grapes are now mostly picked by
machine that I.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Didn't know that machines are the ones that now pick grapes.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I thought grapes are always illegal aliens bending down and
having the horrible back problems for the rest of their lives,
and the rest of us screaming uvas, No, that's not
the case anymore. Now it's Caterpillar Company. No, with the
(21:45):
industrial machines. The US is the biggest wine market in
the world. We're struggling more than most, California struggling the
most of all.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And it's just it's tough. It's really tough.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
The days when Napa Sonoma were on top of the
world with wine. By the way, California wines are as
good as they've ever been, But you have wines that
are just as good coming in from other parts of
the world. And then we have the tariffs coming in
that's going to raise prices. Also, you have young people.
(22:24):
The demographics have changed. Young people are going to seltzers
and flavored all kinds of stuff that they're doing, Neil,
you've talked about that where you have folks that are
taking the hard seltzers and other drinks that heretofore were
there were wine drinkers.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's done.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
It's over as a matter of fact, So were we
all right? Coming up tomorrow? We're sort of done with
a show. First of all, you got Gary and Shannon
and they're going to be here in just a moment
at the top of the hour, and they're going to
cover a ten twenty Huntington Park corruption update and they've
been following that story.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
We, on the other.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Hand, are going to be following all the other stories
and we've got a lot to cover. So it starts
tomorrow morning at five am. Wake up call with Amy.
At six am, Neil and I we come aboard and
do the show until right about now, and of course
kno and and will Cole Schreiber. Okay, now that I
(23:28):
can see him and we have some kind of a
monitor going No, it's okay, let me tell you something.
This is a mercy Ship strip. Okay, it's this is
just for you. Okay, We're done, guys, catch you in
the morning. KFI am six you've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show, Catch My Show Monday through Friday six
(23:49):
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
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