Meet the Candidate: Mike Van Gorder - Burbank City Council Candidate

Ever wondered how a personal journey through housing insecurity can ignite a passion for change? Meet Mike Van Gorder, a dynamic candidate for the Burbank City Council in the 2024 election. Mike's personal experience as both a renter and homeowner fueled his dedication to tenant rights and equitable housing access. With a master's degree from UCLA achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mike brings a wealth of knowledge as a professional housing analyst. In our conversation, he shares his insights into the pressing issues of housing affordability, rent control, and the economic disparities in city council representation, all while balancing his roles as a father, husband, musician, and advocate for progressive change.

Join us as Mike provides a candid exploration of the challenges of homeownership, renting, and transit issues that impact diverse communities. He emphasizes the need for balanced policies that protect tenants and promote long-term security while questioning the notion of ever-increasing housing prices. Our discussion delves into the complexities of the housing market, the pressures landlords face, and the significance of providing alternatives to car ownership in Southern California. Mike passionately argues for clean, safe, and affordable transit systems that cater to everyone, including those who prefer not to own cars or cannot drive.

Mike's commitment to social change doesn't stop at housing. We explore broader socio-economic issues, such as urban planning, local campaign finance reform, and the climate crisis. Mike addresses the importance of diverse role models and emotional availability in combating toxic masculinity, highlighting his credentials and endorsements from various organizations. As an ally of the LGBTQIA community and educators, Mike's vision for a more inclusive and sustainable Burbank is clear, urging listeners to consider his lived experience and dedication to driving change.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My Burbank Talks presents another episode of Meet
the Candidate, the show wherewe invite anyone appearing on
the Burbank ballot in the 2024election to join us here and
give our listeners a chance tolearn about their background and
the issues important to them.
Now let's join our podcast,hello Burbank, craig Stewart,
here with you once again withanother Meet the Candidate

(00:22):
episode.
We've done numerous episodesnow and we've got a lot of great
feedback.
People say they love theseepisodes.
They love to hear what thecandidate has to say on a
one-on-one basis where he's notbeing rushed by a time limit or
anything else.
So we enjoy doing them.
Also, and remember, if you're acandidate on the Burbank ballot
, your name appears there on theballot send me an email at news
at myberbinkcom and we'd beglad to get you on.

(00:44):
Okay, so today we have Mike VanGorder with us.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Absolutely glad to have youhere.
Give you a little backgroundhere.
He's a father of two gorgeousgirls that's true.
Nobody's going to argue withthat, of course One that he
likes to call with leadershippotential and the other, well, I

(01:04):
guess she's two years old,right?
She's just loud.
There you go.
He's been married to his bestfriend.
For over a decade he works as aprofessional housing analyst
and he's earned his master'sdegree.
Where did you get your degreefrom?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
UCLA oh, very good, although I do like to note that
it happened mostly in my kitchenbecause COVID hit when I was
just a few months into my tenureat ucla.
So yeah, it was uh extremelydifficult online only learning
um, while I also had to keep myjob down and uh raise a toddler

(01:39):
at the time.
So that is a just themultitasking that had to go into
all of those things All at oncehardest thing I ever managed in
my life.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I think it was tough for you.
How about all those elementaryschool kids too?
You know they say that screwedthem up for many years.
I genuinely can't imagine thatseriously.
Let's see, he spent six years asa housing insecure renter,
which turned him into a tenantsrights activist.
Since then, he's now living asa housing insecure homeowner.
For the past two years.
He's a musician, a union member, a decent baker oh, and we have

(02:10):
another baker in the uh in therace here amateur and a and a
cyclist.
Yeah, uh, he trained amateurmixed martial.
He trained, uh, amateur mixedmartial arts for nearly a decade
, but only got good enough tonot be afraid of anyone, not
necessarily to win.
Sure, yeah, I like that.
Okay, that's great.
And he says losing doesn'tscare him, which certainly helps

(02:31):
as a political cause, as hecares about.
Have required a flurry of lossesto build the momentum necessary
for big wins First a BernieSanders supporter, then a
two-time elected delegate to theSenate Democratic Party on a
Democratic Socialist platform,then a leader of a voter-led
initiative for rent control.
So he says he's learned a lotto run for office, change the

(02:56):
conversation and win.
So once again, thank you andwelcome to the show.
Thank you very much for havingme.
I really appreciate you.
Okay, so I actually always getin first.
Is you having me?
I really appreciate you.
Okay, so I always get in first.
Is.
You know, let's talk about yougrowing up.
Where did you grow up?
And you know, give us yourearly background.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
From Orange County, probably a decent analog to
Burbank Garden Grove.
You know, instead of thestudios we had Disneyland in our
backyard.
But yeah, I went to OrangeCounty High School of the Arts.
First it was for musicaltheater and then it was for
creative writing, got myundergraduate degree at Chapman

(03:34):
University in Orange insociology, so starting to go
from an artist to a critic ofour society and, like you know,
possible change agent you knowYou're a musician.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yes, sir.
So which instrument do you play?
I play guitar and I sing.
Oh, very good.
Are you in a band or anything?
Yeah, do you have a little band?
Oh, we have a big band.
Oh, okay, and you?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
play professionally.
Yeah, my band's calledCountless Thousands.
We play professionally.
Yeah, my band's calledCountless Thousands.
We're very good High energyindie rock bordering on punk.
I tend not to foreground thatbecause it makes some people
nervous, but you know, I justit's fun.
Music is supposed to be fun andpunk is one of the most fun
genres there is.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
And absolutely.
I'd rather have people who arewell-rounded and not just singly
focused.
So I think it's good to have agood background.
Mine is basically in sports,but I mean music is.
You know, I love music too.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, and being a front man of a band and being my
first job was I was in amusical when I was a kid, when I
was 15.
Playing what part?
Just in the ensemble at the.
The musical was Capistrano,which is about the mission in
juan capistrano original musical.
A lot of fun, um, but I mean youlearn how to be in front of

(04:49):
people, you learn how to speakin front of people.
You learn how to react to whatpeople are saying.
Um, and any performer will tellyou like, um, when you're up on
stage and you have an audience,you get access to a different
part of your brain and, like mywife is so witty, she's so fast
in conversation, like if we'rejust talking.
Her jokes are brutal andefficient.

(05:11):
It's great, I love it, and Ijust can't keep up with her when
it's just the two of us.
But like if you put amicrophone in my hand and an
audience of people out there, Ican, I don't know.
Like just something happenswhere I just get more incisive
and reactive and clever in a waythat I am just, you know, 95%

(05:31):
of the time, just not.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay, what about politics?
So you did some activism, yougot involved in things, what you
know, not only what got youinvolved kind of in politics,
but what led you to say I wantto run for city council in
Burbank.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
I mean there's a lot of answers to that question.
What got me involved inpolitics?

Speaker 1 (05:49):
We'll get more into the issues in a second.
I'm just more.
You know what motivated you tostart doing this?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I wanted to be part of the next generation of
leaders.
I feel that local I mean quitetruthfully.
The thing that got me thinkingit needs to be me, I need to run
for something, was theinauguration of Donald Trump.
I think that that's one of thegreat embarrassments in our
country's history, you know,like certainly not Trail of

(06:15):
Tears level, but it's.
You know it's up there and oninauguration day 2017, I decided
you know what it's got to be me.
I got to run.
I've been an activist for, youknow, worried about housing
issues for all this time.
I know how to talk in front ofpeople, I know how to get ideas
across and none of the peoplethat I really that I was hoping
would run I was living atGlendale at the time and none of

(06:41):
the candidates that I washoping would run decided to.
It was a big opportunity.
There were three open seats andI just thought, all right, you
know what it's going to be me,I'll run.
I have no name recognition, Ihave no money, I have no
preparation.
I've never done anything likethis before, but I'm the only
renter in this race and I'm theonly person that lives in the
south half of the city and goingin and talking about these
issues, talking about rentersissues, is a way to connect with

(07:04):
people in a really genuine way.
I didn't have to do the tapdance, I didn't have to perform,
I didn't have to kowtow or tryto tell a party line.
I was there to be like hey, wehave basically just lawyers and
retirees on our city council andwe talk about diversity, which
is very, very important, but wehave no economic diversity.

(07:26):
We don't have diversity betweenhomeowners and renters.
We don't have geographicdiversity people from the South
half of the city and at the endof that campaign I got 13% of
the vote.
You know, without anypreparation, the Teachers
Association had endorsed me,like East Area, the teachers
association had endorsed me,like East area, progressive
Democrats had endorsed me, andit was a thrill and I knew it

(07:49):
was a long shot, but it wasstill like okay, let's talk
about these issues.
Let's talk about housingaffordability.
There is nothing protectingtenants from the whims of the
economy.
There's nothing protectingtenants from a landlord that
just decides you know what I'mgoing to sell and when, know
what I'm going to sell and whenI sell, I'm going to sell to
this huge like a hedge fund.
And that hedge fund is going toraise your rent $1,400.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let me, because you know what.
Our first, because you're kindof getting into it now.
But our first question isbasically on rent control and
landlord protections.
Okay, so the question is youknow, so give us your viewpoint
on this very complex issue andwhere you think it should go,
because it's in front of thecity council now.
They're working on it.

(08:32):
So what are your thoughts onthe entire subject?

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Go ahead and elaborate.
Now founding for City CouncilGlendale 2017, I co-founded the
Glendale Tenants Union to getrent control because I had a
very competitively priced, let'ssay, apartment and I didn't
want to lose it.
And I've seen graphics floatingaround, that sort of match, the
math that I've done, that sortof match, the math that I've
done and basically, average rentin the city is $2,500.

(09:07):
Or rather, that's $2,544 for atwo-bedroom in Los Angeles
County.
Burbank's average is higher Ifyou take the.
My way of thinking is goingfrom $2,500 to $3,000 means you
know, people just can't hang onto their home.
That's my imagined yardstick ofI'm going to lose my house or I

(09:30):
have to move because I've beenpriced out.
And I saw online it's like howmany years until you're evicted
At the state cap of 8.9%?
Basically 5% plus whatever theCPI the consumer price index is
the number of years that itwould take to go from a $2,500

(09:53):
rent to a $3,000 rent is two Ifyou get two maximum increases of
8.9%, your rent goes from$2,500 to $3,000, and you got to
move for this thoughtexperiment $500 to $3,000.
And you got to move for thisthought experiment.
If you do 5%, it's three years.
If you do 3%.
It's six years.

(10:13):
There's a really big difference.
People are talking about, likewe're talking about, people who
are in our community, people whodeserve to be part of this
community, who just didn't havethe hundreds of thousands to
millions of dollars required tobuy a home at some point in the
past.
But they still deserve to raisetheir kids here.

(10:35):
They still deserve to haveaccess to the schools here.
We still want them as neighborsbecause we care about each
other and we're keeping eachother safe.
You know, renter or homeowner,you are providing value and the
connective tissue of thiscommunity and if that's the case
, you deserve to be here.
And for so long our country hasoveremphasized the investment

(11:01):
value of a thing withoutconsidering that its use value
might exceed its investmentvalue of a thing, without
considering that its use valuemight exceed its investment
value.
When I was in grad school, rightat the beginning, before COVID
shut everything down to save alittle bit of money, I would
park in Bel Air and ride my bikedown to UCLA.
And I asked the homeowner oncelike hey, I don't want to be a

(11:25):
burden, I don't want to be inyour way, do you mind if I park
my car here, you know, a coupleof days a week.
She's like, yeah, just dobehavior.
That house is empty, that houseis empty.
That house is full.
That house is empty, that houseis empty.
This house is our house,naturally.
And then that house is empty.
She's pointing out all of theseincredible homes that have to
be have, that have to be worth,you know, three, four, five plus

(11:48):
million dollars.
At that time I've just there,it's empty.
You know, someone owns it,someone's holding on to it, but
it's not being used.
Um, I mean, that to me is atravesty, you know, because
they're like I.
If you talk to any millennialhomeowner at some point they
will use the word lucky.

(12:08):
My wife and I were very lucky inthat we bought our home two
years ago.
She had a very, very good jobat the time.
We were expecting our secondchild.
We wanted to find somethingwith three bedrooms so that our
kids could have, you know, amarginally less chaotic early
childhood, you know, just so wecould put the baby in in her own

(12:30):
room, and you know, and ourdaughter could have her own
space and eventually we'd wantthem to share that space.
But like we wanted the thirdbedroom, we could not find
anything in this entire regionthat was under a million dollars
except one house.
Oh, that's not true region thatwas under a million dollars
except one house.
Um, oh, that's not true.
There was another townhouse that, when we went to go see it, and
then we're like, hey, we likethis house.
As we were walking out, they'relike, oh, it's sold, sorry, um,

(12:53):
yeah, just cash offer.
If someone's just like, hey, um, yeah, it's no longer available
.
Um, if you, if you're in theposition to pay cash for a home,
I mean, that is such a hugeadvantage.
Which people my age don't havea million dollars lying around.
You know, we have not been ableto save because our rents have
been so much higher, because thecosts of child care have been

(13:15):
so much higher, because the costof tuition and student loan
debt is so much higher thanprevious generations.
So my wife and I bought thishouse April 2022.
2022.
Um, we're so excited.
You know she's seven monthspregnant.
It's like, all right, we'remaking it happen.
Can you believe this?
You've been a tenant, tenantactivist for for years and years
and years and you, you guys,here we're getting your uh, your

(13:36):
master's degree in housing,like, um, maybe we're one of the
lucky ones.
And then six days later she gotlaid off.
No, we're expecting maternityleave.
We're expecting so many things,so many things.
Life-threatening curveballs,that's what it is.
Yeah, and her parents wereunable to help and mine were

(13:57):
unwilling to help, and it wasjust figure it out and we went
from a $1,400 rental two bedroomrental to a $5,000 three
bedroom mortgage.
You know, I keep telling peopleit's the last house that I'll
sell in Burbank for under amillion dollars.
But I'm so cost burdened, likeI spend more on my mortgage than

(14:20):
I earn.
You know, if my wife wasn'tworking as well like we wouldn't
, we would not be making endsmeet and I, like, I'm so adamant
about rent control and tenantprotections because I've been to
city council meetings.
I've known people who have,like, I just got priced out of
this.
I love my community, I lovethis community, but my friends,

(14:43):
my children, had to move with me, naturally, and they don't get
to be friends with their friendsanymore.
They have to go to this wholenew school and I hear people's
pushback of like, well, no one'sentitled to anywhere.
You're not entitled to Burbank,you're not entitled to Beverly
Hills, which is a very, uh,ungenerous way to put it because

(15:07):
for burbank is not beverlyhills, but still sounds elitist.
It does sound, yeah, you saidit, not me.
Um, but like nobody is entitledto anywhere.
But my point is like everybodydeserves long-term security.
They deserve to.
If they want to contribute tothis community, they should have
the means to do so.
They should have the resources.

(15:28):
We can't just say, well, I needto be able to charge as much as
humanly possible for this, uh,uh, for this, because that is a,
it's a one-way street.
Um, there are diminishingreturns to that kind of thing.
Now.
Granted, landlords are entitledto a fair rate of return.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Well, but you did just state, though, that your
tuition went up.
All these things went up, andthey go up substantially,
probably more than 5%, 6%, yeah,I mean—.
Now landlord costs also go up.
You know.
Water and Power and Burbankraised their costs like 6% 7%,
two years in a row.
Everything else seemscost-effective for landlords

(16:10):
also, so do you understand thattheir plight also is— they're
caught in the same vicious cycleas a renter is, except their
hands are tied if there is rentcontrol on them.
So how do you tell them that?
You know, know, hey, there's away out of this for you also.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, there's a fair rate of return built into all
rent control in california, um,and if you have something where,
hey, my roof needs a massiverepair, uh, that can be part of
a renting.
Like you need to, uh, apply toI mean, honestly, I kind of
forget the specific mechanics ofit but you can apply to say,
like I need an exception in thiscase because I have a major

(16:49):
$20,000 repair to see to.
And then there's that, like Isaw a study very recently.
I wish I had it on hand, Ican't.
I can't really cite or quote it, but the basics of it is like a
third of rental income covers amortgage, another third covers
expenses, and then there'sanother third of like all right,

(17:09):
well, that's your profit, or orthere is space, you know, and
if it's the kind of thing I have, I have a.
I have a real problem withfolks who come back and say like
I am just as much a victim asyou or I.
I'm just in as much a bad spotas a renter who's getting a rent

(17:31):
hike.
You own a building and if youneed to, you can sell the
building and make a profit.
It seems like housing is theonly commodity in our society
that is always guaranteed to goup like there people talk about
like I, I, um.
At one of the recent forumssomebody challenged me on it of

(17:53):
like well, you know, you took arisk to buy your house.
Like yes, that's true, um, buthe was unwilling to acknowledge
that he took a risk buying theseapartment buildings.
People don't want to considerthat the use value.
It should be a considerationwith things that are necessary
for people to live Housing,water, food, clean air.

(18:18):
Too often it's just like well,it's mine and I should be able
to do with it what I want.
It's like okay, but what aboutfamilies?
Do you want?
Do you want?
When was the last time you sawtwo?
I'm thinking of like you seeone stroller go by?
Count how long it takes you tosee a second stroller the next

(18:40):
time.
You're just sort of out in theneighborhood.
Like it is so hard to start afamily anymore and to maintain a
family.
We're losing families.
Our enrollment is going down inthe city, at our schools, you
know, and that affects theamount of money that the school
is taking, which affects theactual quality of the education
that's delivered.
And so when I talk aboutprotecting tenants, protecting

(19:04):
people who are trying to buyinto the latter, the middle
class, because, at the same time, it's this argument of like
well, I worked hard to get whatyou want.
I'm like.
I will not dispute that any.
Anyone anywhere worked hard tohave what they have.
My problem is that there are alot of people who do not
acknowledge the advantages thatthey have, that they weren't

(19:24):
aware of at the time, that areno longer available to people
like me, because we just got inafter the market was torpedoed
in 2008 and before then, youknow like, at the same time,
there's um, I mean, I got my mymaster's in urban planning, so
we learned all about segregation.
We learned all about redlining.
There was this nefariouspractice called contract

(19:45):
mortgages or contact mortgages,excuse me, because
African-American families werenot offered traditional
mortgages.
They couldn't get insured, sothe only people that would there
was a format of a home loanwhere, basically, these vultures
would come in and say, allright, so we'll buy this house

(20:06):
for you, african-american family, and if you sign a contact
mortgage, what this means isthat if you miss one payment at
any time, if you're late on onepayment, you forfeit everything
that you've spent and youforfeit the house.
Now I'm not trying to draw acomparison between the plight of

(20:26):
the African American family in1940s and 50s America to
millennials.
Now I'm trying to say thatthere is an incumbency bias,
there's an incumbency bonus.
Prop 13 and other laws protectlong-term home incumbency and
that comes at a cost to peoplewho are trying to get in and we

(20:48):
are not creating housing that isappropriate for working people
and working families.
We are right now just creatingeither you can build an ADU in
your backyard if you've got$100,000 plus lying around,
which, if you do, awesome,that's a good way to keep
families together.
You know, grandma and grandpalive in the ADU.
Adult children and their kidslive in the main house.

(21:10):
I've seen that a lot here intown and it's encouraging.
You know, multi-generationalliving.
I wish that we had access tomore of my family as we were
raising our kids.
We're just a little spread out,but it's either an ADU or it's
a luxury apartment, you know,and those start renting at four
or five, sometimes six thousanddollars.

(21:30):
You know, I spoke to a woman wholives near Huerta who had just
sold her home at that time, youknow, for the average cost,
which is like one point twomillion dollars.
One point two million dollars.
Million dollars, 1.2 milliondollars.
Um, the mortgage, uh, that thatnew owner was going to be
paying was ten thousand dollarsa month because of what the
interest rates were at the time.

(21:51):
Um, I mean, even just back withmy example, if I wanted to try
to get the loan that I need tohave my home right now, I could
not.
I got we, my family got thehome loan.
During these seven weeks it waspossible for us to get the loan
and we lucked out by finding ahome that was, you know, in our
price range at the time, so tospeak.

(22:12):
You know, going into it, we'relike it's going to be a stretch
but we can make it.
But if we I mean we have anadjustable rate mortgage, so 10
years after the signing of thatloan, the rates will change to
whatever it is in 2032.
I don't know if we'll be ableto afford it at that point.
I don't know if that's gonnashoot my mortgage up from $5,300

(22:35):
a month to six or seven.
But I mean, my point is likeI've been studying housing for
so long, I've been studying thehousing affordability crisis for
so long.
People's concerns about whatabout.
You know my ability to makeends meet.
I want to.
You know like I'm a goodlandlord.
Those are valid, but in acrisis, I'm more concerned about

(23:00):
the people who are in crisis,and the crisis is the people who
do not own things or who youknow, people like me who are
severely cost burdened, which isto say, I spend more than 30%.
I spend 50% of my family'sincome just on our housing.
These are the people that needhelp and they need help now.

(23:23):
So I mean, like our response asa city, our response as a
society, should be like whoneeds the most help?
You know, what can we do?
And to understand thatownership works for some people,
doesn't work for everybody,everybody.

(23:43):
But young people and newcomersto the market, people of color,
seniors on fixed incomes wedon't have this access to the
same tools anymore.
If you didn't buy 10 years agoor more, the percentage that

(24:07):
you're going to be spending onyour house or your home, or or,
or I mean it.
It's either break yourself tobarely afford a thing, uh, save
nothing for your retirement.
You know, I don't know if I'mgoing to be able to retire.
Um, you know, that's the otherthing.
It's like well, just keepworking, like okay, so I'm going
to be working into my 80s.
You know, like, is thatdignified?
We are in so many wayssacrificing uh, uh or expecting

(24:31):
young people to sacrifice theirfuture so that we just don't
adjust to status quo.
That isn't working for us, youknow, that's.
That's where.
That's where I come in.
Well, to challenge that.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Nothing like trying to get a?
Uh, where that's where I comein, well, to challenge that.
Nothing like trying to get a uh, a passionate answer on a
question, huh.
So we hit the fat firstquestion, which is right up your
alley.
So yeah, I think I only gotlike one more question, no no, I
think it's very important,though, that people understand
what you're all about, andthat's that's you know.
I think you just showed itright there and gave your a good
honest.
You know good honest.

(25:03):
I appreciate yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
It's like I, I have.
I have a hard time because Iwant to empathize with people
and, like people, work hard,they should, they should,
they're entitled to the benefitof their work.
Um, it's just that.
So am I.
You know, I work so hard.
Um, my family worked so hard.

(25:25):
My family worked so hard.
We've given up so much, but wedo not have the same guarantees,
because we bought in 2022 whenthe market was crazy, and it's
gotten so much worse since then.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Well, we're going to move on to transportation.
Sure, because once again, Iappreciate the response and I
said I wanted you to go on andgive, get everything out there.
You wanted to get out becausethat's what's your backgrounds
in that housing, so I know it'simportant to you.
Um, this dog.
This dog is a winner, no longerskittish yes yes, he's now, we

(26:00):
are friends he does like to makefriends with people, excellent,
okay, so give us your thoughtson the bus rapid transit plan
that's going to go down all theBRT.
So what are your thoughts onthat?
Right now, it's kind of acontentious issue on both sides.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, I mean we need more regional transit.
We need good regional transit.
We need more regional transit.
We need good regional transit.
We need to provide peopleoptions, not just to get people
out of their cars, because weabsolutely should be trying to
get people out of the cars.
Do you remember that week,right at the beginning of COVID,
when everyone it was a lockdown?
You look out over the hills,like you know, driving up the

(26:39):
134 to Pasadena.
You look out, you see, like youcan.
And with climate change beingsuch a present issue, you know
Octobers are getting hotter andhotter and hotter and hotter.
We need to change the way wethink about transportation.

(27:00):
We need to change the way we'rethinking about energy use, and
there are a lot of people who donot want to own cars.
There are a lot of people whocannot own cars.
There's plenty of seniors whojust can't drive.
They deserve freedom ofmovement in the city just as
well as anybody else.
Southern California developed sospecifically during the era of

(27:22):
the automobile, that theassumption that everyone's going
to own a car, there will be afree place to park it and there
will be a free place to park it,and there will be a free place
to park it wherever you need togo.
Like those assumptions areeverywhere and those are
expensive assumptions.
Any parking space that is builtnow costs like $40,000 a piece.
But it's not direct.

(27:44):
You don't pay for it out ofpocket.
You don't say I'll have oneparking space, please.
You have to put that cost intoeverything else.
So homes are more expensive.
Housing you know, multifamilyhousing is more expensive.
Restaurants are more expensive,like things are more expensive
because you have to expect thatfree parking Back in.
You know, back in the oldentimes I used to drive for Lyft

(28:05):
and moving from Burbank orGlendale, there were people who
lived Burbank, glendale, AtwaterVillage, silver Lake, who did
not want to own a car but whowanted to get to the West Side.
And I asked them once, like, isthis really cheaper than owning
your own car?
Is it easier than owning yourcar?
And he said yes to both.
So I mean, there are people outthere who do not want to own

(28:26):
cars but at same time, like mydaughter, is fascinated with
buses.
She just loves buses and shealso loves the Chateau Tea House
in Pasadena.
I would love to be able to takethe bus with my daughter to go
to the Chateau Tea House inPasadena.
That sounds great.
We need to provide peopleoptions and the instinct is to

(28:48):
say no one's going to use it.
Well, that may be true of you.
You know, like you and yourresponse, you as you're thinking
it doesn't make sense for howthings are working for you right
now because you don't use a buson a regular, you don't use
rail on a regular.
But if the option presentsitself and it's attractive and
it's clean and it's safe andit's affordable, maybe you start
folding it into your daily use,like I used to.

(29:08):
Um, uh, uh, I used to work forthe Riverside planning
department, uh, riverside County, and I'd have to be in my car
for an hour at a time and Ideveloped sciatica like nerve
damage in my leg as a 37 yearold dude, uh, with this commute
to Riverside and back twice aday.
It was horrible.
Um, if I had the option to takeoption to take a bus or light

(29:32):
rail and not have it you know,even if it was like an hour and
15 minutes instead of an hour orhour and 20 minutes, hour and a
half, that would be something Iwould have considered.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
We'll get back to a little bit more transportation,
but let's get back to Olive andthe BRT.
Are you for a single lane?
Are you for mixed flow?
What's your?

Speaker 2 (29:50):
how do you feel on that Dedicated lane?
Dedicated lane with signalprioritization.
So, basically, if it's going tobe the bus rapid transit system
, it needs to be rapid.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
They have said, though it's only, at the most,
take maybe one minute off thetrip.
Who's that?
The Metro?

Speaker 2 (30:09):
The Metro has said it's taking one minute.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
About a minute off the trip by having a single lane
compared to mixed flow in thatsection of burbank.
Yet the traffic will probablyback up for eight to ten minutes
well then, we got.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Then we can get into, uh, the the urban planning
concepts of induced demand andreduced demand.
Um, so induced demand is theidea that when you widen the
highway, everyone hears about it.
Oh man, dude, did you hear?
There's an extra lane on there.
It's going to be smooth as silk.
We're going to get in there.
It's going to be so much faster.
Everybody then chooses to usethat route and for the first few

(30:45):
months, the initial opening ohman, it's just great.
And then the demand is induced,more people choose that route
and it slows right back down tohow it was.
Widening highways doesn't work.
Um, the opposite uh effect iscalled reduced demand.
Oh man, all is going to beslower now.

(31:05):
We can't go that way anymore.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
We got to go a different way but what if that
way involves going through allthe residential neighborhoods?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
now I mean people are already doing that um to to a
limited degree.
But also it will spread out, uh, the use of those uh
intermediate streets, uh, andnot just happy, because right
now it's just like the onestreet is the main street, like,
um, I can't remember offhandI've I've knocked so many doors,
I've spoken to so many people,thousands, thousands of doors,

(31:34):
thousands of people, and, yeah,in that immediate section,
especially like that five-pointcluster, or rather that
six-point cluster at Olive andSparks, like that, oh man, that
is a.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's not great.
Yeah, they've been talkingabout actually reconfiguring the
intersection for a while now.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
I would be interested to see proposals.
Not being a transportation like, I took transportation classes,
I like transportation policy.
Sorry, a theory.
Rather it is the other side ofthe housing coin.
You know, like what makes acity housing and transportation.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
You know let's go more into transportation.
But my next question is youknow how do you feel that the
burbank bus serves the city?
Do you like?
Would you like to see anythingelse added to the transportation
system in burbank to helpburbank residents?

Speaker 2 (32:21):
yeah, I this came up a while back at this the um
streets for all uh uh forum.
I'd like to see morecirculators, more bus
circulators.
I'd like to see a lot morenorth south connectivity.
That's true of of bikeinfrastructure as well, but we
don't have a lot of north-southmovement in the city.
So I wanted to see that greenline sort of do two opposite

(32:42):
flow circulators, usingHollywood or Buena Vista as the
main, like the spine, so thatpeople get moving around.
I'm not an expert on using buses.
I've gotten an invitation, orrather there was a challenge
from a constituent, basicallylike hey, ride the bus with, you

(33:02):
know, depend on the bus for amonth, or sorry, for a week
rather.
And you know, like, so youreally understand what it's like
and how how much time you'regiving up to use public
transportation as it is, to findout where all the weak points
are, really understand thisthing better.
And I said I want to take youup on this challenge.

(33:23):
I cannot, you know, like I, Ihave to spend every spare moment
I possibly can out talking topeople.
I have two small children, likeI.
You know they need me to pickthem.
My wife usually works a littlebit later than I do.
So I mean like I need thatflexibility of transportation
right now.
So I can't accept thatchallenge.
You know I appreciate exactlywhere it's coming from and I

(33:45):
look forward to, in calmer times, really understand it, really
riding the system depending onthe system for a bit,
understanding it better.
So I'm not an expert, but I knowpeople who are and I want to
really integrate with that,really get into that perspective
.
You know, because the instinctif you use a car is to just be

(34:07):
like no one wants to use that.
Well, there are a lot of peoplethat have to use it, in
addition to some people whowould choose to do so if they
could.
So I mean, just in general, weare so car dependent.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Well, I think the transportation is not really
helping us at all.
I mean, we're not really seeing.
You know, like you say, inBurbank, there's really no
transit in Burbank for people totake.
You see north-south routes andyou know.
Back to what you say about theamount of time spent, if you
look at, you, go to Google Mapsfor directions and you can push
to the side.
Okay, how long does it take ifI walk?

(34:44):
How long does it take if Idrive?
How long does it take if I bike?
And how long does it take if Itake a bus?
And you'll find the bus issometimes two to three times
longer than a car and sometimeseven the bicycle is shorter than
taking a bus.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, you're talking to someone who rode his bike
from here to UCLA and it wasmarginally faster than driving.
I can't imagine how much longerit would have taken to use a
bus.
We had a volunteer really earlyon in the campaign who lived
out in Monrovia and it took himlike an hour, half hour 40 to be

(35:22):
in Burbank to help knock.
Yeah, it's like I'm looking atright now just to get home.
If I want to use the system asit exists now from where I am to
get you know here in thebeautiful media district, if I
want to get back to the Ranchoadjacent district next to the
five freeway at Alameda, that isa 40 minute endeavor I could
probably hang out.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah, could I probably walk there?
Yes, I think you could.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Let's find out together, you and I walking an
hour and 10 minutes or a 40minute bus drive, it's a slow.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
That's a slow walk because I used to walk from here
to Jordan Junior High Schoolback in the day and it took
about 45 minutes.
Anyhow, you're in the mediadistrict and right now you're in
the media district adjacent, sothe media district specific
plan is now starting to hit thisforefront.

(36:12):
What do you believe should bedone to protect residents and to
stimulate business?

Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, man, I need to see the specific plan.
This is something that was anearly proposal of mine of like
look, you want an urban plannerto read your urban plans.
You want an urban planner toread the neighborhood plan?
When I have time, time, I lookforward to reviewing this thing.
But my, my initial knee-jerkreactions are these um, the big

(36:39):
box luxury developments.
They're not for us, they're not.
We have so many of those unitsright now.
Um, I would like to see arental registry to find out
exactly how many of these luxuryapartments are vacant.
Um, that figures into some ofthe other considerations I like
to make around tenantprotections, and you know I want
to.
There should be a differencebetween the rental owning a

(37:03):
rental as a hedge fund andowning a rental as a mom and pop
Another conversation for alater time.
But basically, like, mediadistrict is a gem.
It is a very specific likeyou've got that beautiful.
Like the village with oh, theygot rid of the old chip shop.
That was my favorite restaurantin town.
They got rid of it.

(37:23):
I'm so sad Cause that would belike the one thing of like, all
right, we can barely afford toeat out anymore, but like, well,
restaurants on that street lastabout a year or two years.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
All of the time has been there forever.
There's 17 restaurants there ina three block radius with zero
parking, so how do you sustain abusiness in that?
In that regard, you know, yeah,again zero free parking?

Speaker 2 (37:45):
We're not.
I mean, yeah, there's parkingavailable but it's like $6, man,
it's pretty brutal.
But again, that goes back tothe assumption of the only tool
we will use to get around is acar, and using the car must be
free.
I would be interested in Okay,so I took the parking class with

(38:06):
Donald Shoup at UCLA.
He literally wrote the book theHigh Cost of Free Parking at
UCLA.
He literally wrote the book theHigh Costs of Free Parking.
And the idea that parking willbe ubiquitous and free does mask
the costs of some things.
And I would be interested tosee charging for parking in such

(38:26):
a way that it incentivizes theavailability of parking spaces
on the street and then the moneythat is used in that parking
can be put into alternativetransit options.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Okay, Another conversation another time.
You never saw my notes.
It's amazing how you aremorphing from one question to
the next in the order I havethem.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
I didn't get to start with the media.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
just yet I disagree, because these are all you know.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
so my next question was.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
I'm going to answer this question when you ask your
next question Okay, do them bothat the same time, because they
kind of co-mingle then.
So it sounds like parkingmeters are coming to downtown
Burbank.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I would be interested to see that.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
What are your thoughts there?
And should we look at puttingthem in additional areas to
generate income also, likeMagnolia Park or Glen Oaks or
other areas?
So there have been severalmeetings about that.
Now it's coming in front of thecouncil.
So parking never had parkingmeters in Burbank before, yeah,
so what do you think about allthat?
I mean?

Speaker 2 (39:24):
I love that Orange Grove parking structure.
There's always something thereand it's always available.
It's always free.
I could see a very goodargument for, especially on San
Fernando, since it's a one-waythese days, to put meters that
charge appropriately for the use.
The idea of like I don'tremember the term, like look it

(39:47):
up, the high cost of freeparking, donald Shute, 2005.
Laughs at his own jokes inclass all the time, don't we all
?
I don't know.
The idea is to charge enough sothat there will always be one
to two spaces open.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
That's the plan they actually have in Burbank now.
Right, that's the plan they'recoming up with with electronic
and they're going to do bydemand and by you know.
The goal is to have 20% ofspots always open.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Okay, yeah.
So that's yeah, that's flexible, it's annoying, it will.
You know that's another costthat we're going to have to
incur and you know it sucks as apolitical candidate to be
talking about something that Iknow is unpopular, you know, but
my master's degree is spinningon the wall back at home and I
feel like I have to Um.

(40:34):
So I mean, creating thatavailability is part of it.
Generating the revenue and thenspecifically making sure that
revenues from parking are putinto uh, either uh, uh,
beautifying our public spaces,uh, uh, creating, like, bus
shelters.
Beautifying our public spaces,creating bus shelters, creating
parklets, making third spacesmore available and safer, or

(41:03):
alternate transportationinfrastructure, like protected
bike lanes and more and betterbus lines to create the options
where it's cheaper to ride thebus, and you know what it's
about.
The same time, these days Imight as well, you know,
incentivizing other uses.
Um, you know, cause a lot oftimes it's like, right now, our
bus service to get back home,it's going to cost me 40 minutes

(41:24):
.
There's just not that much uhavailable right now.
Uh, like just not a lot of oflines that are moving.
Um, but if we're charging forparking, the flex time, donald
shoe model, uh, it generatesmoney that we can then reinvest.
You know, the point isn't tojust dump it into the general
fund, um, or, you know, put itinto people's salaries that work

(41:45):
for the city, but just like, nolike, instead like ear market
for these really specificpurposes that directly dovetail
with what people are doing inthese spaces.
Now to get back to the mediadistrict, okay, and that
question, the neighborhood plan.
So I've been talking for awhile about more in different
formats of housing.
I think that the big box luxuryapartments are we have enough,

(42:07):
we don't need more.
What we need are more indifferent formats.
We have enough, we don't needmore.
What we need are more indifferent formats.
I would like to startincentivizing smaller
developments for smallerdevelopers and have, you know,
four to six unit townhomes bemore common, and especially in
our commercial corridors,because that's the big resource
that a lot of cities have rightnow are underutilized commercial

(42:31):
areas.
You know we've got the IKEAbuilding that's empty, we've got
the Fry's, we've got Kmart.
So all like the big formatstuff.
We also have the smaller formatstuff, like Riley's Boutique on
Magnolia has been.
It's across from Palm Coffee,which I love, but I think
Riley's Boutique has been closedsince, even before COVID.

(42:51):
You know there areopportunities and the state is
constantly putting morelegislation behind speeding up
the development, making itcheaper and easier to build
these sorts of recapturedcommercial spaces into
residential um.
I would like to see what can bedone with smaller format
multifamily developments in themedia district.

(43:14):
You know because that we needmore housing everywhere.
But when you don't spread itout broadly you get those big
prod, those big giant buildingsthat make the neighborhood feel
like a kind of like they'redoing a pass Riverside right now
.
Yes, pass Riverside Exactly.
People talk about like sevenstories.
It's going to be castingshadows on people's homes and

(43:34):
pools and stuff like yeah, wenot great not great, but like my
problem.
Um, the problem is we're dealingwith the consequences of the
decisions made by councils priorto 2020.
Like these are uh chickens thatare coming home to roost.
That that the present council,even the previous council, had

(43:54):
nothing to do with, because thestate housing element is it's a
thing that every city needs toprovide every eight years of
like.
Here's where we could puthousing, here's where we, here's
how much housing we haveproduced, um, for, basically up
until 2020 or so.
It was a paper exercise of justlike.

(44:15):
It shows where you could put it.
If you can't put it anywhere,all right, it's, it's annoying,
but it's fine.
Um, but starting, uh, in 2020.
Oh, we got puppy action.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yes, what's up, buddy , he can bark yes, he can all
right, give it a minute uh,he'll keep going, we just keep,
we'll just keep going here.
I don't think you know allright, people understand dog
doing his job yep, yep, keepingit safe.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Oh, there's a flashing light coming from
outside that's our, that's ouron the air light oh okay,
perfect, I thought it was like atruck out front, all right,
anyways.
Uh god, what was I talkingabout?
Um, the dog.
The dog threw me off so hard.
Um well, we can move on here noI don't want to move on.
I don't want to move on.
Um, okay, so that's right.

(45:03):
Um, council's project 2020never took the housing crisis
seriously, did not spread out uhuh housing throughout the but
instead we're just like well, weneed to preserve the character
of our neighborhoods.
I'll tell you what, mike let'spause for a second.
He's really going after it.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Yeah, he's going after it.
So let's pause for a second andwe'll be right back after this
dog intervention.
So stand by, we'll be rightback.
I can't.
That's probably my 3 o'clockshowing up, Ah there you go?
Yeah, that's my 3 o'clockshowing up.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Go for it, okay, dodger.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
Dodger Dodger.
You know her.
You know her.
Come on, love dog.
I'm sorry, fred, I thought youwere.
No, it's okay, I put him in myhead.
I didn't think he was going to.

(46:04):
You think that?
Good boy, good boy.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Go ahead and sit down and then we'll.
Okay, I'm going'll get back onthis.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
There's also and oh, handled yeah, she came in and
he's he's doing what dogs do youknow?
He's.
Naturally I gotta love a dogwho's just loyal to what he
needs to do.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Yeah, okay okay, I'm not taking the okay, perfect,
all right, um, okay, so hold ona second.
Here we were talking aboutcouncils prior to 2020.
You hit me when you're ready.
Okay, there'll be some.
Oh, it's still recording.
All right, we're good, yeah,but let me let me get back into
this here.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Uh, sure, so three, two, one.
Well, we're back with you and,uh, the dodger alarm has been
solved.
So sorry about that we.
We apologize for the the breakhere.
Yeah, so, mike, we were talkingabout councils of the past and
once you continue your thoughtson that, yes, thank you.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
So councils prior to 2020 never took the housing
crisis seriously and becausethey came from a generation of
leaders who are concerned aboutneighborhood character.
You know retirees, people withtime, and you know they've just
been around a while and surethey love their city.
But also they have a veryspecific perspective and this
perspective is I'm a homeowner,I've been here for 30 plus years

(47:35):
and I don't want anything tolook different.
I don't want anything to change.
I don't want my commute to getlonger and certainly there's
merit in that but all the whilewe were underproducing housing,
commutes were getting longerbecause the only housing being
created was in the exurbs.
We've got all this housinggoing up in Lancaster or

(47:59):
Valencia and nothing here.
We have one housing unit forevery six jobs in the city.
Our population goes from100,000 to 250,000 during the
daytime.
You know, because we just we'renot accounting for councils
previous to now, we're notaccounting for the need as it
existed in the city and so tosort of be mindful of

(48:19):
neighborhood character, it'ssort of like, well, let's just
put some housing and somemultifamily housing and just
these little tiny clumps.
Basically, end of the day,state of California said you
didn't produce enough housing.
You did not make your regionalhousing needs assessment goal
and therefore we are taking awaylocal control.
And so now the new generationcoming in are, you know, having

(48:40):
to clean up for this problem.
Like we've got these massivebuildings going in.
Like, granted, we've built moreunits over the past I think
four years than in the 20 priorto that.
But it's the one format, it'sjust luxury apartments.
So the idea that I'm trying topush is smaller format

(49:02):
multifamily development for momand pop developers.
You know, I've spoken to peoplewho are like I want to build
some apartments but I can'tbecause it's just so hard to do
it through the city right now toget what we need, to get the
permits, to get everything, getthe plans, get things moving

(49:22):
along.
Granted the high-power, thebig-box luxury developments,
those go faster because they'vegot a huge legal team behind it.
If it's just, you know, peggyand Bill who just want to put up
some more housing becausethey've got the money and you
know they want to try to createthis thing, it's a huge burden
and the burden turns people off.
So trying to incentivizesmaller development on smaller

(49:46):
lots, that's what I want to doand I'm looking forward very
strongly to being able to readthese neighborhood plans.
You know, with my criticalbackground, like I studied this,
I do this every day.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
If it helps you at all, we have one of the meetings
from the district plan on myBurbank on the YouTube channel.
We have the downtown parkingmeeting on the YouTube channel.
Okay, so we have a lot of thosemeetings that the city's held.
We want to go back and reviewany of those and take a look at
the city's proposals, okay.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
My Burbank YouTube channel.
Yes, I look forward to havingenough time to review these
things.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
We try to get a lot of things on there.
We're always busy, trust me.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
I trust you.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
So what areas do you feel the city is going in the
wrong way and what would you do,if elected, to change or
improve that direction?

Speaker 2 (50:33):
The wrong- way, let me tell you what I'm worried
about more than anything else.
I'm a grassroots candidate,right, my reach is as far as my
feet will take me.
I'm going out.
Like I said, this campaign isknocked over 14,000 doors.
I personally have knocked over3,000 doors like conversations
with people and I work, I'veworked really hard to do the

(50:57):
fundraising thing that isnecessary to have this kind of
conversation with the city and Ibelieve my team and I have
raised about $20,000, probablymore than that Raised and spent
about that.
And we exist in a post-CitizensUnited society.

(51:18):
We're a local council racewhere the job earns you $20,000
a year, is being funded.
There are some candidates whoare being given or spent on
their behalf a half a milliondollars Mailers in your inbox

(51:39):
every single day and those cost$10,000 apiece.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Isn't that proportional, though, to all the
other races?
Are you looking at how much isbeing spent on Senate right now?
No-transcript In a local race.
Well, I'm just talking aboutisn't that proportional, though,
as you move up the ladder forcounty supervisor, for whatever
you know, la City Council member?
It's proportional as far as howmuch money is spent on these
campaigns.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Well, I think that's an appeal to normalcy of just
like that's how it is foreveryone else.
That's how it should be, didn't?

Speaker 1 (52:06):
say it's right.
I just said isn't thatproportional to what's going on
in the rest of?

Speaker 2 (52:10):
elections?
I don't think.
So I will say that, look, I'mexcited to cast my ballot for
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
I think that a lot of peoplehave a lot of progressives and
liberals and leftists havedonated to her campaign and it's
been difficult to keep up.
But I mean, like this electioncycle has been so unlike the

(52:37):
previous ones, you know, just interms of raw dollars.
When I ran in 2017, I gloatedthat.
You know, basically, I hadraised three thousand dollars
and I got three thousand votes.
You know I spent a dollar pervote and I was up against people
who the three of them puttogether, who won these three
seats collectively raised andspent a quarter of a million
dollars between three people.
Now, seven years later, there'stwo people and it's a half a
million dollars.

(52:58):
I'm sorry, six hundred andthirty thousand dollars
independent expenditure.
I just think that's grotesque,that's not democracy, that is a
hijacking of our dialogue.
You know, I can't have the samekind of conversation and you
know what?
Maybe that's helping in someways, because so many people are

(53:21):
sick of that format.
Well, absolutely Do.
I agree.
Buried in these messages, everysingle day.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Do I agree with you Absolutely, and we're in these
messages every single day.
Do I agree with you Absolutely?
And we're in a nonpartisanelection in Burbank.
We don't go by Democrat orRepublican.
But yet the outside money beingdumped in here is tremendous.
But the problem is because ofPACs and everything else that
our country says it's fine to do.
There's no choice in it, and Iwish we could pass a campaign

(53:48):
reform, but even so, outsidePACs would still have their
influence over and it wouldn'thave to go by local conditions
here's the response to that,which is I'm going to spend my
money a lot more wisely thansome of these other candidates.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Just because I have to, I have to put a lot more
thought into where am I going toget the most return on every
dollar that I raise.
You know, every dollar thatpeople give me is a vote of
confidence of like we thinkyou're the, you're the person
for this job.
So I want to use that.
I want to use that money very,very wisely, and what we've done
is we've spent it on people togo out and knock doors and talk
to people, get the flyers up.
Uh, we're not advertising,we're talking um, blocking, um.

(54:23):
What would help?
Uh, uh, people like me, or youknow me, or people like me uh,
are matching funds.
Um, uh, of los angeles doesthis.
If you uh fundraise past acertain threshold and if you
agree to certain limits, um,with the money that you raise
thereafter, um, then you aregiven funds matched by the city,

(54:44):
but just like here's, you know,just, for example, $15,000.
Like that, would you know, if Ifundraised 15K and then was
provided 15K by the city to havean honest conversation with the
city, I wouldn't spend that onmail.
I wouldn't spend that onharassing Well, I understand
that.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
But if you get $15,000, there's 10 candidates
each, you get $15,000.
That's $150,000 of taxpayermoney in the city.
So do you think that's the waypeople want to see that go?

Speaker 2 (55:13):
I think that people would be a lot more willing to
provide that kind of money ingood faith and say, like I want
local candidates who areresponsive to my needs have a
real shot.
And maybe degrees of that arevoluntary, maybe degrees aren't,
but just like whatever LosAngeles is doing to properly
fund grassroots candidates withmatching funds, we should be

(55:33):
looking into that.
I want to see ranked choicevoting so that people don't
worry about spoiler candidates.
You know like if you're a firsttime candidate, you know just
talking about renters issues andyou have a Mohawk like I did in
2017, you know like if therewere ranked choice, I bet you I
would have gotten more thanthose 3,000 votes.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
What about council districts?
They're saying that they triedto shove down our throats about
a year ago and they're fightingagainst it.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Well, shoving down our throats, packages the
conversation, like now, tryingto defend the idea, you know you
put me on the defensive of like.
We have districts for so manythings.
We have districts for theschool board, we have districts
for, you know, los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Well, they didn't have a choice in that either.
The school district was forcedinto it, but it was the same
person.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Right, but it's more representative.
They couldn't fight back becausethey didn't have the resources
it's more representative of andthey couldn't fight back because
they didn't have the resources.
Yeah, it's more representativeof the neighborhood.
Like I live rancho adjacent so,like I'm sure that my district,
such as it ends up being, wouldinclude the ranchos, so I would
need to be responsive to bothrancho adjacent needs and the
ranchos needs.
But that's still 20,000 peopleand not 100,000 people.

(56:46):
You know, we have this systemset up where, like, I heard that
criticism in 2017 of like, well, you're just building little
fiefdoms where no one you knowif you're in that area, then no
one can ever bump you out.
It's like we already have that,but just in the wealthiest
areas in town.
I am very encouraged that thecandidates that keep winning

(57:06):
elections here in Burbank areyounger and more progressive.
You know, we've got two renterson council.
We've got a cost cost burdenedhomeowner on there right now
who's moving into state assemblyVery excited for, you know,
vote Nick Schultz.
He's, he's, he's a good one forstate assembly.
So we're getting more and more.
We're getting closer and closerto representing the city, not

(57:31):
only due to just the economicsof it all, but like because
there are people like me who aresaying I deserve a shot at this
too.
It can't just be retirees andit can't just be lawyers.
It can't just be people who areindependently wealthy uh, who,
who are just like.
That sounds fun, it's.

(57:51):
It's so much work like yes it'sso much work but, like, you need
to have the right priorities tomake sure that you're serving
your popular, you're servingyour community.
We were asked um uh, uh.
One of the questions at theLeague of Women Voters was like
should Burbank City Councilweigh in on international issues

(58:13):
?
It was a way to talk about,like well, the ceasefire
resolution that our city councilunanimously voted through.
I read it, I supported it andmost candidates said no man
should stay in our lane.
And most candidates said no manshould stay in our lane.
My reaction was people vote forleaders because they want
leadership, they want comfort,they want to be seen, they want

(58:39):
to be heard, especially inmoments of crisis, like, if
you're an elected official, youare responsible to reach out and
to be available and to be heardand responsive to what people
care about.
And, like, the ceasefireresolution specifically affected
me because I'd be the first Jewin the history of Burbank City
Council.
You know, and I want, like mylike I said, my comments.

(59:03):
My heart broke for the victimsof the October 7th attack and my
heart continues to break forthe tens of thousands of people
who have died in Palestine sincethen, and it was so important
to so many people in ourcommunity that our elected
leadership say something, and sothey did, and that's how it

(59:26):
should be.
Our elected leadership saysomething and so they did, and
that's how it should be.
We are here to be responsive tothe needs, to people's needs,
to make sure that we just don'tlike because I've been in the
position where it's like, hey,city council member, I have a
huge problem, I'm scared, andyou get the pat on the head of
like well, I care abouteverybody in the city.
Well, that's not what I'msaying.
Like, hey, I have this problemand I'm scared.

(59:47):
What can the city do to help?
Well, we're responsive toeverybody.
That's not what I'm saying.
Like there's like I'm going to,I'm going to like you heard
what I'm saying Like beresponsive to everybody or be
available to everybody, yes, butbe responsive, be responsible
to hear people out.
You know and that's one of thethings that I think that makes
me such a compelling candidateis I'm going through what so

(01:00:10):
many people are going throughright now cost burden.
I'm trying to raise a familywhere half my money goes to my
house and the other quarter goestowards the child care
necessary for the both me and mywife to work to, you know to to
pay off these, to pay.
You know we don't go, we don'treally go out to eat, we don't
go on vacation, we don't reallyget to relax all that much.

(01:00:32):
We are worried all the time andthat perspective is essential
on council.
I don't want to hear folkscoming up like you know what?
I hear you, I really do.
I hear you it's like okay, butare you living what I'm living?
Can you really understand whatI'm going through?
If you're not going, if youhaven't gone through this, if

(01:00:54):
you're not going through it now,because what?
Like the trials andtribulations folks had gone
through in their own?
You know, young adulthood arenot equivalent to what's
happening now, and I say that aswell as, like you know, an
almost 40 year old person, likewe've got the new cultural
crisis of, you know thesepodcast hosts who are, you know,

(01:01:18):
convincing all of our young menor trying to convince young men
, rather, that women are theproblem.
You know that you're fine.
You're a dude.
That means you're fine.
You're a dude, that meansyou're powerful, you're strong.
You got to stand up, stand upstraight, make your own bed and
subjugate those people aroundyou.
You know it's like people heartoxic masculinity and they think
, oh, all masculinity is toxic.

(01:01:39):
Is that what you think?
No, man, the adjective isimportant.
There is masculinity.
There's my version ofmasculinity, which is I like to
wear pink, I have tattoos, Ilike to, like you know, be, I'm
comfortable in my own skin andI'm emotionally available to my
family and my friends.
You know, I, I, my childrenhave seen me cry before Like
it's important that I present tomy kids a complete picture of

(01:02:02):
what a person and what a man is.
And then there's toxicmasculinity, which is this idea
of, like men have to only eitherbe angry or in control, and
that is that is absolutely wrong.
But that that line is being isbeing pumped into young men
through YouTube and throughpodcasts, you know, such that

(01:02:25):
young men are growing more andmore conservative, you know,
just because they don't havethose same kind of role models.
So, like when I'd say like I'mnot, like you, older generations
, you're not going through whatI go through.
I will acknowledge, at the sametime, I'm not going through
what younger generations aregoing through, you know.
But like when I was talking to,like the League of Conservation
Voters during their endorsementprocess, like the climate

(01:02:47):
crisis terrifies me, absolutelyterrifies me, and I know that
one day it's going to beterrifying to my children as
well.
And so, in that moment, whenthey look at me and they're
crying and they're so scaredbecause they know they
understand a fraction of what'shappening to this planet and
they say, daddy, what do I do?
I just want to have a goodanswer in that moment.

(01:03:08):
You know what I mean.
And so, like that's, that's whyI'm getting so involved in all
this stuff, and there are somany people like me going
through all this stuff, and theyneed to be heard, they need to
be provided resources, they needto be prioritized.
You know, it can't just be thesolutions that we've trotted out
for decades that have notworked, um, and we are starting

(01:03:29):
to turn, like I imagine thingslike turning a boat.
You know you can't just flip aboat.
Uh, that boat takes time tocurve around, you know, but it
needs people, uh, like me, whoare going to prioritize,
creating different systems, uh,bringing those different
priorities in, and not justbeing like, well, this is what

(01:03:49):
happened before.
Maybe it'll, maybe it'll work.
Maybe it'll work this time.
You know, I just don't, I don'thave a lot of faith in that.
But I have a lot of faith inthe expertise, the lived
experience that people like meare going through.
And you know like I got a lotof faith in my master's degree
there you go, yeah, bringing itback home.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Well, mike, mike, we appreciate you being here and
what I always do at the end ofevery podcast.
You know your camera is and Igive you the whatever time you
want.
You can look right in thatcamera, you can talk to the
voters yourself and you can tellthem why they should vote for
you put the little check marknext to your name for burbank
city council.
So this is your time, pleaseuse.
Please use it as you'd like to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
Yeah, okay, first of all, thank you.
I appreciate you watching allthe way through to this.
I'm sure that there's somestuff that I've said that you've
disagreed with.
I hope that you've heard atleast some stuff that you do
agree with.
But we're in a housing crisisand I'm a housing policy
professional.
We're in a democratic crisiswhere people just threaten our

(01:04:50):
elected leaders for clicks and Iam a twice elected delegate to
the state democratic party who'srun on a populist platform, uh,
and I'm an amateur fighter.
Who retired amateur fighterwho's not afraid of putting
myself between a vulnerablepopulation and people who are
accusing them of horrible things.
I am a staunch ally of theLGBTQIA community.

(01:05:13):
I'm a staunch ally of oureducators.
I'm endorsed by the BurbankTeachers Association.
I'm endorsed by the CaliforniaWorking Families Party East Area
Progressive Democrats TeamstersJoint Council 42.
I'm one of two union members inthis race.
I'm one of two people withchildren in Burbank public
schools.
I am living a life like mostyoung people in this city and I

(01:05:37):
want to be part of that nextgeneration of leaders and change
makers.
As I'm going around, I'mknocking on doors Again.
I've knocked over me personally, knocked over 3,000.
The team's knocked.
We're coming up on like 15.
And I keep hearing.
You know what.
I'm glad you're doing this.
You know the no one's ever cometo my door before you know and

(01:05:59):
what that tells me is thatpeople haven't reached out Like
I want to reach out.
I want to try to be there.
I want to the conversationabout resolving the crises.
As a housing insecure homeownerwho spent almost a decade as a

(01:06:32):
tenants' rights activist, Isubmit to you I and my master's
degree in housing and my yearsof experience working in housing
policy.
I'm the best person for thisjob, so I hope you'll consider
me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
All right.
Well, mike Van Gorder, thankyou very much for coming in.
We appreciate it.
Thank you.
I know people watch and listenbecause we have this on YouTube
Plus, we have it on 13 differentpodcast channels, so they get a
lot of listens.
So I think it's good thatpeople get to know who you are.
So we appreciate you coming in.
Thank you Once.
So we appreciate you coming in.
Thank you Once again.

(01:07:05):
This is Craig Sherwood sayingthank you for watching, and if
you're a candidate and your nameappears in the Burbank ballot,
please send an email to news atmyburnercom and we will be glad
to give you a shout-out.
So there's a little quick,little shout-out of Mike.
There.
There's these campaign flyers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Thousands of these and doors.
Okay, anywhere you've seen oneof those, I've been.