September 8, 2025 • 32 mins
Santa Monica possible bankruptcy. 6-story apt. building in Fairfax . CA GOP energized by gerrymandering. #TITS: Small plane in Valencia / Caribbean hard landing.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
A wild week. Shannon's actually up in northern California helping
take care of mom. She's going through some surgery, so
we wish her the best, of course, and she'll come
back next week. Technically next week, she's going to be
on the air on Monday, but the game, the Chargers game,
is in Vegas that night, so she'll be on the
air from Vegas on Monday and then come back to
(00:30):
the show on Tuesday. A couple of other stories that
we are following. Falling lumber prices could mean some problems
in the economy. Wood markets have have been hit by
trade uncertainty, and futures in lumber have dropped twenty three
percent since they hit a three year high at the
beginning of August. They ended Friday at about I think
(00:52):
it's five hundred and thirty five dollars per thousand board feet.
That's your measurement. The price drop could have been greater,
but they said to Two of North America's largest sawyers
said last week that they would curtail outputs slowing the decline.
Think of it as a global commodity like oil prices.
So that's not great. Doesn't necessarily mean that the canary
(01:14):
is dead, but the coal mine is at least on
alert for now. Chef Andrew Gruhle has joined us. What's
your take on the hot issue of cold searing Cold Series?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah, cold searing. I love it, So I've always talked
about this at length. I mean, that's essentially a version
of a reverse seer, where you start at low heat
and you finish with incredibly high heat as opposed to
the other way around. The idea behind it is twofold.
Number one, You're ultimately going to get a better seer
at the end because there's less moisture by virtue of
the cold seer. Nothing can brown in a presence of steam.
(01:44):
And number two, the longer you keep your meat at
a low temperature, typically between eighty and one hundred and
twenty degrees, there's enzymes that slowly break the meat down.
So if you keep it at that low temperature for
a long period of time, you're going to get a
little bit more of a tender bite.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's what I That's what I've always said to people
nobody listens to me because I don't know what I'm
talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But cold seering sounds more like a problem, like this
is like relationship counseling.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Right, Well, he was cold seering me for a week.
We need to talk to a councilor you've been in
a state of cold seer for a long time. Chef
Gruel is also a Huntington Beach City council How did
that come about? By the way, Tony Strickland used to
have that seat, right, Yes, he was elected to a
state Senate.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so Tony Strickland and I've you know, I've kind
of been involved sniffing around the periphery, if you will,
trying to help out with local politics. I always see
as that being a lot more beneficial than some of
the national stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And knew a lot of the city council members.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So when Tony Strickland moved over to the State Senate,
there was an open seat, which, interestingly it was they
could appoint that seat. Now that's I should tell you,
that is very very That's an interesting point because it
used to be it would have to go to a vote.
And when Tito or Tez left the city council because
he was formerly on a city council. After three or
four months at the time, the already on the council
(03:00):
was of a different political party. They changed the city charter,
they changed the rules to make it an appointed position.
So oh, okay, it's the old Harry Reid, you know,
nuclear option mistake.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
And then I got so by.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Virtue of that, they had the right to appoint somebody
and they appointed me into that seat.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Is there a future in that for you? I mean,
are you in politics? Well, I don't know about politics.
I found out that I think I want to use
the word policy. Yeah, I as opposed to politics. I
love that you used the word policy earlier today, so
I think that's a better way to put it. But yeah,
explain what your future is in policy.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
I'm taking you know, I don't want to eat the
elephant in one citting, if you will, one bite at
a time. I've got about sixteen, what eighteen months left
now because I'm filling out Tony's term, and then I'll
run again for city council and we'll see where that goes.
I actually think that city politics and policy is so
much more valuable and so much more important, and also
(04:01):
it's much more representative than when you get into the
kind of state and national stuff. So but I make
the joke, I'm like, I should have just become the
public works director because first day on the job, if
you want to call it that, you know, one hundred
and fifty emails about potholes, paved streets and tree overhangs, right,
so you know that's the important stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, one of the headlines locally today is that Santa
Monica City leaders are being asked to declare a fiscal
emergency because of their budget crisis. And I thought one
of the reasons I want to talk about it with
you is because of this unique perspective of being at
that city level of government and governance. This is not
unusual budget crises come up. I mean, there's probably thousands
(04:41):
of cities across the United States that are dealing with
some sort of budget crunch. If it rises to the
level of a budget crisis, through the level of a
fiscal emergency, how do you I mean, now that you've
been in it for several months and even like you said,
sniffing around the periphery, do you see differently than you
(05:01):
from the inside than you did from the outside. Certainly.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And look when when Santa Monica can't even afford kal anymore,
you know we're in trouble. I mean, they're gonna be
Airbnb in city Hall pretty soon. So what's really interesting
is that, and this was where I had trouble. Now
suddenly being in government is somebody who's very much about
like more libertarian principles and not taxing citizens. You suddenly
(05:24):
realize in government, your revenue comes from taxes, essentially in
some form or another, and or ultimately just like raising
you know, kind of raising the level of increasing revenue
so that you can keep taxes at a low rate,
but then by virtue of the grand share, your income
goes up. As a city, that's really it. I mean,
that's your income. You can be creative about it and
(05:44):
create public and private partnerships. But what's what I find
fascinating about the Santa Monica conversation, the Los Angeles conversation,
is that they've got the highest sales tax, they've got
the highest taxes on absolutely everything, including property taxes, and
they're developing left and right, so they should have the
budget crisis that perhaps some other cities, right like Huntington Beach,
(06:04):
We have the lowest sales tax in Orange County altogether.
It would be very easy for us to just increase
it by a point or a half a point, but
we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's not what the voters want.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
We got to be creative about how we increase our
revenue and we're able to balance the budget. And then, furthermore,
for all cities in California, I think it's important to
note how much comes down from Sacramento and how many
things like, let's just this is just one example SB
thirteen eighty three, which basically requires that cities now have
to work with their waste disposal companies and they've got
(06:33):
to compost and they add I have to add more
recycling elements. Right, it's this kind of like environmental regulatory
piece now that to push down the cities costs these
cities millions and millions of dollars right in conjunction with
their waste hollers. It's just that's just one element that
we don't even talk about that's mandated. So right, So
(06:54):
there's so much that comes down the pipeline that we
can't forecast and understand from Sacramento that cities really need
more independence so that they can oversee their budgets.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, it's specifically in Santa Monica. They also point to
this settlement that they had to pay out two hundred
and twenty nine million in settlements plural because of the
sexual abuse by a former police dispatcher there. One hundred
and eighty claimants came forward lawsuits like that, whether it's
an assault lawsuit, slip and fall lawsuit. I mean, the
(07:26):
one time I was ever called to a jury was
a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for off
duty guy working movie security, movie studio security ran into
a city operated dump truck and was traumatic brain injury
for the rest of his life. Those kinds of payments,
(07:49):
those kinds of you know, legal responsibilities that these cities
are dealing with, they're overwhelming. I mean, city of La City,
a county of Los Angeles, they're dealing they themselves are
millions and millions of dollars that have to be paid
out because of the mistakes of usually just a one
or two or a few people.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, and it's I mean I see it all the
time working within the city. Handfuls tons of lawsuits and
there's also a cadre of trial attorneys, almost a small
institution of trial attorneys now that know that they can
target the cities as well. So I mean they're essentially
pilfering from the funds of these cities. It's now incumbent
upon the cities to place a certain amount of money
(08:28):
aside in anticipation of these lawsuits. But how much, right,
And it keeps going up and up and up, And
that's money that otherwise could be in treasury and could
be making a return on it. I find it somewhat
poetic that, you know, a lot of these Los Angeles
cities are the ones who enforced the you know, enforced
a lot of the policies that allowed for these lawsuits
to exacerbate out of control.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But everybody is suffering the consequences, all right. Chef Andrew
Gruhl has joined us. Will continue with the Gary and
Shannon Show, including another story this an apartment building that
is ripping a town apart up in northern California.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
One of the founders of Supertramp died. His name was
Rick Davies. He co wrote the band's music with Roger Hodgson.
They said he was the voice and the pianists behind
Supertramp's most iconic songs and leaves an indelible mark on
rock music history. Died after a long battle of cancer
at the age of the age of eighty one. Postal
(09:30):
traffic into the United States has dropped, they said by
more than eighty percent after the Trump administration ended the
tariff exemption on low cost imports. Universal postal unions as
they started rolling out new measures that could help postal
operators around the world calculate and collect duties. After the
US eliminated the Deminimus exemption for the low value parcels,
(09:50):
eighty eight postal operators have said they suspended some or
all postal service to the United States until a solution
could come in. But again, eighty percent dropped by more
than eighty percent after they ended their tariff exemption to
Minimus exemption. Chef Andrew Gruhle and City Council Member Andrew
Gruhle has your one person has joined us today on
(10:15):
the Gary and Shannon Show, and I wanted to talk
about some of these issues that I know you've had
to deal with at the city. Not necessarily exactly, but
at that city level. A bunch of people who live
in Fairfax, not the Fairfacs district here in La Fairfax,
the town up in Marin County. They are dealing with
a six story apartment building. These people are losing their
(10:38):
minds because they believe that a six story apartment building
is going to be an eye sore and listen, it
is a rather bucolic little town Fairfax. So six story
you know, if you're here in southern California, six story
apartment building doesn't sound all that awful. But the city
is doing this. The city is trying to figure this out.
The vice mayor fail is a recall vote along with
(11:01):
the mayor over the project. They said, the design is
cookie cutter, it's cheap, and it does not fit within
the esthetic. But the voting actions have always been mindful
of protecting the town from liability litigation and penalties, which
kind of goes hand in hand with what we were just
talking about with Santa Monica dealing with these budget issues.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, well, the housing piece is a whole other conversation.
So you know, you have hounding housing mandates. Every city
has to have a housing element where they basically say
here's where we can put in all this affordable housing,
and in the state mandates how many affordable housing units
every single city has to have. So if you don't
have a housing element in place, that basically allows for
(11:40):
the development of that number of affordable housing units, which,
by the way, most affordable housing projects aren't one hundred
percent affordable, right You might have twenty percent that's affordable
in eighty percent, and then you kind of mix mix
market on it. So the numbers are excessive. And that
was Newsome's plan to be able to introduce more affordable
housing throughout California. Let's just push it down onto the cities.
(12:02):
But I find fascinating about this fairfact story is that
they voted sixty seven percent Democrat for Newsome, so this
is his policy. They voted for this policy, but now
they don't want it in their backyard. And that's what
it always comes down to, is that not am I,
somebody else has to do it. Right, You can't stay here,
but we're going to let you in. You can't do
You got to build housing, but other cities have to.
(12:23):
We don't have to. I think jam it up six
eight ten stories in Fairfax.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Why not? I think that's one of the one of
the issues of policy, to use the word carefully, one
of the issues of policy that is frustrating again as
a voter, as somebody who goes to the polls to
make these decisions about policies that are going to be
in effect for our neighborhood, for our city, for our county,
(12:49):
for our state, and there are other people who don't
have any clue about what actually is being asked of them.
They don't have any clue about what the the impact
would be of their decision, whether it's yes or no.
I mean, think back Prop one high speed rail has
been one of those things that is unfortunately for fans
(13:10):
of high speed rail, this project in California is absolute
proof that voters can be completely moronic and fooled by
people who want to have whatever pet project that they
want to have.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
And you know, I'll even take a step back and
I won't say moronic just because I'm up for reelection.
I would say I would say no, I would say manipulated.
I think voters can be easily manipulated because if you
think about it, right, kind of the drive by voter
who's got, you know, working at nine to five or
in many cases, you know, an eight to eight uh
and just doesn't have the time to digest the granular
(13:46):
detail on a lot of these headlines.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
They live by the headlines.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
And as we know, and especially when these propositions are written,
they're written by psychologists who are able to manipulate and
tweak and change the wording so that you're not actually
voting for what you think you're voting for. I think
that's what we've seen with a lot of the propositions.
But furthermore, local politics are the most important, you know,
politics in your life. You get up in the morning,
you go out of your cars, your carbon stolen? No,
(14:10):
you hit the street. Are there potholes in the street?
Did you get a flat?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's a pretty good day so far.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, Like, these are all elements that come from public
works and all of the people that you put on
those boards and commissions. But we we have a tendency
to focus on the national stuff, right like these big
cultural issues frankly, which don't affect our day to day lives.
And I think we need to get back to that,
and we also need to look at all these proposition
titles and descriptions with you know, kind of through a
(14:36):
different scope, A certainly an inquisitive scope.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Do you think it should be taken out of the
hands of the Secretary of State. Isn't that who's responsible
for about titles and descriptions and things. Yeah, I think
it should be a non partisan commission of three and
three and one. Don't even start with commissions, because now
we're trying to take away the power from the non
partisan commission that was put in place by who, by
voters to draw districts for congre Okay, but that leads
(15:03):
us actually into this next segment, because there was a
big meeting over the weekend California Republican Party that got
together and they are, depending on how you look at it,
either energized by this fight over jerrymandering and redistricting, or
they're just trying to figure out how how to pull
this thing together. I mean, the Republican Party in California
(15:26):
has some similarities to the National Democratic Party in that
they're trying to find a way forward in the face
of great opposition. So we'll talk about that when we
come back.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
In the twelve o'clock hour, We're going to do our
Gas Fantasy for play recap, talk about how that first
week went. The Chargers did win down in Sal Paulo, Brazil.
They beat the Chiefs. Rams beat the Texans yesterday fourteen
to nine. Over at so Far. Tonight, Monday Night football
is going to be Vikings, Bears, Angels are going to
host the Twins. Tonight, the Dodgers will host the Colorado Rockies.
(16:06):
They're going to be coming into town. Also a reminder,
our News and Brus is coming up Monday, September twenty second,
two weeks from today. We're gonna be live at Bjay's
Restaurant and Brewe House in West Covina, right there on
Eastland Center Drive, doing the show live from nine until one.
We'll trying to see what kind of trouble we can
get into on a Monday again, Monday, September twenty second,
(16:27):
at BJ's Restaurant and Brewe House in West Covine at
Eastland Center Drive. It was great to meet a bunch
of people. On Saturday, I was out in Sebe Valley
along with Conway and Dean Sharp, and a bunch of
people were out there to help celebrate American Vision Windows
and their twenty fifth anniversary celebration. So Bill and Kathleen
were out there saying hi to everybody and thank it
everybody for helping make that such a great company. So
(16:48):
it's nice to meet everybody. Chef Andrew Gruhl has joined us.
He's gonna be with us all day today talking about
all kinds of stuff. We'll get it's been at it's
been a little heavy, I'll tell you that. But we
will get to some lighter stuff in the next couple
of next couple of segments, including a terror and the
sky is coming up in a bit. But over the weekend,
the California Republican Party got together and had their fall
(17:12):
convention down in Orange County. Although it's not quite fully yet,
but we're not gonna we're not gonna fault them for that.
And it's the way the La Times writes this up.
They say the generally speaking, it's great time to be
a Republican if you're in DC. Everything is Republican. Trump
has put gold leaf on everything. There's a new Rose
Garden Party Club or whatever it is. But it's a
(17:35):
bad time to be a Republican in California. Outnumbered in
terms of voter registration out number two to one. When
it comes to the state legislature, haven't won a statewide
office for twenty years, nineteen years, and Republicans are struggling
to find some sort of a foothold. But they may
have it in this whole fight over Prop fifty, which
(17:55):
is the gerrymandering redistricting effort. Governor Newsom is responding to
what happened in Texas with the redrawing of congressional maps
and it has to go to the voters here in California,
and Republicans are hoping that this is a very clear message, Hey,
don't give Gavin Newsom in the state legislature more power.
(18:17):
That's it, because you can't talk about redistricting. That's a
yawner that no one cares about it. Nobody knows what
the word jerry mandering means unless you're back in you know,
sophomore in high school and learning about it from from
the history books.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah, jerry mander. I feel like I should. That's a
sandwich I need to put on the menu.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's a good idea, you know, but it would be
like it would be baked, it would be a bread
that doesn't have uniform shape to it or something like that.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That's a great call, and that's the worst way to
make a sandwich. So one side maybe has all the
tomatoes and it's a Chipotle burrito when they're not rolled properly.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Or two different slices of bread. You got a rye
on top and then you've got some you know, heavy
wheat on the bottom of some kind. I actually might
like that that it introduces a whole new foundation. But look,
you know, I mean GOP.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
The GOP here in California is obviously mobilized by the
opposition to this, And that's a really good point you
bring up, is we can't obvious gate the facts here
and confuse people with the detail on Jerry manderin this
just specifically, is your area going to get represented with
these new maps that are drawn. I think most people
don't even understand their maps that are being drawn. This
comes out to getting out the vote, because if you
(19:24):
live in an area now which is fundamentally going to
change by virtue of that representation because of the way
in which they drew it. Take Huntington Beach as an
example of Orange County. Right now, you've drawn Long Beach
into that significantly. They are two distinctly different cities, especially
in regards to the way in which they look at policy.
You need to motivate people to get out and vote
(19:46):
against that. And this might be the issue that motivates
to people because it's always about getting out the vote,
right it is.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I think the basic issue, like I said, it shouldn't
be or if you're gonna sell it, it can't. The
main message can't be about redistricting. It's got to be
about the power that exists in those halls in Sacramento.
We voted, We voters voted in two thousand and eight,
I think in twenty ten as well, to give the
(20:15):
power of district drawing to an independent commission, to keep
it out of the hands of the legislature so that
this thing wouldn't happen, that this kind of I don't know,
artificial manufactured seats didn't cause problems. And now, even if
(20:39):
even if you believe that Texas did the wrong thing,
that they bowed to President Trump, they're going to redraw
their districts so that they gain five Republican seats. Even
if you think that's right, I'm sorry, Even if you
think that was wrong doing, this thing here does not
make that right. Two wrongs don't always come out on
(21:00):
the positive here, and one doesn't alter the actions of
the other.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
So Newsome has specifically said this is regardless of what
Texas does.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
We're doing this now right.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Originally he tethered it to that action in Texas, but
now he's kind of cut that tether, if you will,
and I call this Gavin Mandarine. That's what it really is.
It's Gavin Mandarin. And I think that that's much more
memorable and sticky, if you will. I think you are
one hundred percent correct in that it is. Do you
want to give more power to the unelected bureaucrats, because
(21:32):
that's what this comes down to. Most of California is
being managed by the unelected bureaucrats right now, all the
single letter agencies, the Coastal Commission, carb right. I mean
I could go on and on and on, and we
see it on a city level. Or if you're just
a business owner, you know about these these boards, these commissions,
these unelected bureaucrats, because they're running your life day in
and day out. So we're gonna now give them more
(21:53):
power to control and manipulate the way in which we're
represented within the state.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
No way, no way. It's a fascinating a plan if
you know somebody who has worked on these these district
maps before. Basically you have to come up with a
shape of you know, outline wherein there are I think
it's seven hundred and seventy thousand people per congressional district,
(22:18):
whatever the population specifically the number is. But you can
take a couple of blocks from one neighborhood and then
give it to a different district, and then change an
entire neighborhood several blocks of what and you you end
up with looks like Lake Nasamiento. I mean, it's it's
this fragmented, it's you know, it makes zero sense if
(22:42):
you're trying to describe how you're going to draw a
map to include the right number of people to be
represented by one representative in Congress. I don't like you said,
I don't think people understand the intricacies of and the
manipulation that's available to the people who are actually drawing
the map. If I asked my four year old to
(23:02):
draw a picture of an Ardvark, it would probably have
more composition and design than these new redistricted maps. From
the Ardvark District in California. All Right, a little bit
of fun taror in the sky's hard landing in the
Caribbean and somebody dropped into a watermelon field outside Valencia.
I didn't know there were watermelon fields out there. That's
(23:23):
coming up next.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Chef Andrew Gruhle has joined us in place of Shannon today.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Hey, guys, I wanted to thank Andrew for helping to
oh keep us all up during COVID, and I really
appreciate how he fought for the little guy because God knows,
the small restaurants couldn't stay open, but the change here
(23:56):
could and that was a fiasco. And anyway, thanks you
both and have a great week.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Thank you for that. Yeah, that was one of the
things that was the twit landed you on the radar
in my house, was was your policy when it came
to when it came to COVID. My wife worked in
a hospital and was blown away by the things that
were required of her and medical professionals, despite the medical
(24:24):
professionals knowing what they know about medicine. The ridiculous restrictions
on visiting people who were dying and things like that.
It just, I mean, it was mind blowing, and we
you know, we talked about it. Shannon and I came
in every day like we did. We never broadcast from home,
we never we were here every day, which was weird
because this whole the entire place was a ghost town.
(24:47):
And it was one of those things that it felt
like we were just being told things for the sake
of being told things that the health mechanisms that are
out there public health generally, but La County public Health specifically,
they were just trying to They were trying to act
as if they knew what the whole situation was, and
(25:09):
they never had a great clear picture of it.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Well, your suspicions were confirmed, obviously, because the people who
were telling us things were not doing what they were
telling us to do, as seen by all the videos
and pictures for two years straight, including public health officials.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
So you were right, Yeah, it was you did the
right thing. How is the restaurant business, I mean, are
we back anywhere close to what we were in twenty nineteen?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
It depends on what metric you're looking at, right, So
it fundamentally changed the nature of the restaurant business altogether,
right from labor to cost of goods all the way
across to a lot of the regulations that came out
after COVID which were unrelated from COVID specifically, but part
of kind of the culture of COVID, right, there was
a culture of COVID that went beyond medical.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So it's been tough.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And then you had this influx of money, so with
the PPP, the employee retention credits, and then ultimately a
lot of the rest of the money that was pumped
into the econ to me. A lot of that distilled
and trickled down in two restaurants, but it also increased
the price of goods, and it increased the cost of
labor and all the other regulatory elements that hit our
bottom line.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And then add to that the.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Inflation twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, a lot of
those restaurants who were flushed with cash who opened more
spaces closed right, So then you had this graveyard of
restaurants and then people taking that picking it up and
opening second generation restaurants and then running into headwinds with
the current economy. So you know, it's had highs. It's
these crazy peaks, right, these crazy highs and lows, and
(26:33):
it seems like they've been quick highs and lows, very quick.
That's that's the thing, and that's where it's been very
hard for banks to predict, you know, safe investments, so
you're losing capital and access to capital as a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
People want to.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Move into a much more secure asset from an investment perspective,
and by people I mean banks, et cetera. So that's
one of the biggest difficulties. And then subsequently, the you
know changing or not changing of interest rates and what
we've seen with interest rates going so high up that
also makes it much more difficult to be able to
access capital for restaurants, so you don't see as much growth.
(27:08):
So a lot of those spaces that went under a
sitting dormant because nobody's now able to refresh or regentrify them.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
And restaurant space can be very specific, right, I mean,
usually it's a space. If you're opening a restaurant, unless
you had the luxury of building from the ground up,
you're probably occupying someone's old restaurant space.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah, you're retrofiting. Hopefully you are because you're retrofitting into that.
Because but even in the short period of time, as
I said, as California government has gotten so much bigger,
they've run out of things to legislate and argue about.
So they just keep adding more and more regulations on
the docket. So let's say I opened a restaurant in
twenty twenty three, I put a hood in, which is
really the cost is the mechanical, the electrical, and the plumbing,
(27:48):
all of those elements. In twenty twenty five, the regulatory
kind of requirements could be totally different because Sacramento was
so bored they decided to throw another one hundred regulations
on there that I can't even use as a second
generation restaurant. I've got to put a whole new hood in,
or a new electric system or a new plumbing or what.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Have you got to keep them safe? Right? Is it
all safety based? Is it?
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's well, that's going back to my point about SB
thirteen eighty three.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
A lot of it is environmental, right, So it's subjective.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Okay, yeah, you know, so the disposal of X, Y
and Z, or how many garbage cans you need, or
how many parking spaces based on the California Coastal Commission's
new level of insanity. I mean they're just drinking some
juice over there that I'd like a sip of.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, let's get into a quick Terror in the skies
flight zero n I, or you.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Are a glare for the day off Roger, get off
my plane, Progerick Rogers's vector, Victor.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Enough is enough I have had with these Multy pipe
and snakes on this money.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
It's Gary and Shannon's.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Terror in the Skies on KFI. So a plane from
Toronto on its way to San Martin ended up bouncing
after landing on at the airport there and then skidding
down the runway. The west Jet twenty two seventy six
is landing gear probably collapsed while landing. They said the
(29:11):
pilot had to call for a may day, and they
said that they were going to evacuate. This was a
seven thirty seven. This was not a tiny little a
tiny little regional jet. This was a big old baby
seven thirty seven rolling down there. They sprayed foam across
the plane as a precaution. After the landing. They said
a couple of people taken for medical evaluation, just to
be cautious. But at this point, no big deal. The
(29:33):
thing is that specific airport is an Internet celebrity because
of the very dramatic low altitude approach right over the beach,
and there are people who stand on the beach and
they go and it looks like you can reach up
and touch the wheels of these planes.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I always wonder if those people are gonna get blown
out by the you know, kind of the exhaust.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
They are so close. Did you ever see the movie,
I want to say it was Moving ten something like
about air traffic controllers. I want to say Billy Bob
Thornton was in it. Okay, but there's a great scene
of them. He and I think there was another guy
air traffic controllers standing down at the end of one
of the runways and the plane comes in for a
(30:14):
landing over their heads and then they get blown away
by the by the jetwash, like just completely throwing off
their feet, tumbling backwards a couple hundred feet. It was
a great scene.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
You know, Orange County John Wayne Airport is one of
those short runways, so they got to do that hard
landing and then it just slams on the brakes. And
every time my kids know this They're like, Oh, we're
gonna take our seatbelt off and see if we can
handle it by just holding on to the you know,
the side whils. They're young, they don't understand I'm probably
never gonna be a lot on a plane again after that.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
And then there was a small plane that had engine
failure yesterday. Thankfully the pilot and her two passengers unharmed.
After the plane's engine failed yesterday, she put a put
a plane down into a watermelon field just west of
Magic Mountain. Crash report at just about five o'clock last night,
Henri Meo, driving the old road. The pilot told a
(31:04):
cameraman at the scene that the engine sputtered and stopped
after she left Santa Pola, which is just a little
bit west of there, and could not return the airport.
To return to the airport over the mountains, hills and
freeways and just said, hey, that looks like a watermelon
patch would be a pretty good alternative.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
So who's covering the cost of those lost watermelons? That's
what I want to know, is that the USDA or
is that the FAA.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
It's a good question. Maybe it comes out of her pocket.
And how do you get the airplane out of the
out of the watermelon field is a tow truck? Do
you take it up? You take the wings off and
throw it on the back of a truck or something.
I don't even know how to do that. I guess
there's there's people for that. All right. We'll get into
swamp watch when we come back, talk about some of
the stuff that's going on in DC, specifically about the
(31:46):
Supreme Court, but also why our attention spans are getting shorter,
and the chef has an opinion on whether or not
you should clean your kitchen at night. You've been listening
to the Gary and Shannon Show. You can always hear
live on KFI AM six forty nine am to one
pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
A wild week. Shannon's actually up in northern California helping
take care of mom. She's going through some surgery, so
we wish her the best, of course, and she'll come
back next week. Technically next week, she's going to be
on the air on Monday, but the game, the Chargers game,
is in Vegas that night, so she'll be on the
air from Vegas on Monday and then come back to
(00:30):
the show on Tuesday. A couple of other stories that
we are following. Falling lumber prices could mean some problems
in the economy. Wood markets have have been hit by
trade uncertainty, and futures in lumber have dropped twenty three
percent since they hit a three year high at the
beginning of August. They ended Friday at about I think
(00:52):
it's five hundred and thirty five dollars per thousand board feet.
That's your measurement. The price drop could have been greater,
but they said to Two of North America's largest sawyers
said last week that they would curtail outputs slowing the decline.
Think of it as a global commodity like oil prices.
So that's not great. Doesn't necessarily mean that the canary
(01:14):
is dead, but the coal mine is at least on
alert for now. Chef Andrew Gruhle has joined us. What's
your take on the hot issue of cold searing Cold Series?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah, cold searing. I love it, So I've always talked
about this at length. I mean, that's essentially a version
of a reverse seer, where you start at low heat
and you finish with incredibly high heat as opposed to
the other way around. The idea behind it is twofold.
Number one, You're ultimately going to get a better seer
at the end because there's less moisture by virtue of
the cold seer. Nothing can brown in a presence of steam.
(01:44):
And number two, the longer you keep your meat at
a low temperature, typically between eighty and one hundred and
twenty degrees, there's enzymes that slowly break the meat down.
So if you keep it at that low temperature for
a long period of time, you're going to get a
little bit more of a tender bite.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's what I That's what I've always said to people
nobody listens to me because I don't know what I'm
talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But cold seering sounds more like a problem, like this
is like relationship counseling.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Right, Well, he was cold seering me for a week.
We need to talk to a councilor you've been in
a state of cold seer for a long time. Chef
Gruel is also a Huntington Beach City council How did
that come about? By the way, Tony Strickland used to
have that seat, right, Yes, he was elected to a
state Senate.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so Tony Strickland and I've you know, I've kind
of been involved sniffing around the periphery, if you will,
trying to help out with local politics. I always see
as that being a lot more beneficial than some of
the national stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And knew a lot of the city council members.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So when Tony Strickland moved over to the State Senate,
there was an open seat, which, interestingly it was they
could appoint that seat. Now that's I should tell you,
that is very very That's an interesting point because it
used to be it would have to go to a vote.
And when Tito or Tez left the city council because
he was formerly on a city council. After three or
four months at the time, the already on the council
(03:00):
was of a different political party. They changed the city charter,
they changed the rules to make it an appointed position.
So oh, okay, it's the old Harry Reid, you know,
nuclear option mistake.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
And then I got so by.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Virtue of that, they had the right to appoint somebody
and they appointed me into that seat.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Is there a future in that for you? I mean,
are you in politics? Well, I don't know about politics.
I found out that I think I want to use
the word policy. Yeah, I as opposed to politics. I
love that you used the word policy earlier today, so
I think that's a better way to put it. But yeah,
explain what your future is in policy.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
I'm taking you know, I don't want to eat the
elephant in one citting, if you will, one bite at
a time. I've got about sixteen, what eighteen months left
now because I'm filling out Tony's term, and then I'll
run again for city council and we'll see where that goes.
I actually think that city politics and policy is so
much more valuable and so much more important, and also
(04:01):
it's much more representative than when you get into the
kind of state and national stuff. So but I make
the joke, I'm like, I should have just become the
public works director because first day on the job, if
you want to call it that, you know, one hundred
and fifty emails about potholes, paved streets and tree overhangs, right,
so you know that's the important stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, one of the headlines locally today is that Santa
Monica City leaders are being asked to declare a fiscal
emergency because of their budget crisis. And I thought one
of the reasons I want to talk about it with
you is because of this unique perspective of being at
that city level of government and governance. This is not
unusual budget crises come up. I mean, there's probably thousands
(04:41):
of cities across the United States that are dealing with
some sort of budget crunch. If it rises to the
level of a budget crisis, through the level of a
fiscal emergency, how do you I mean, now that you've
been in it for several months and even like you said,
sniffing around the periphery, do you see differently than you
(05:01):
from the inside than you did from the outside. Certainly.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And look when when Santa Monica can't even afford kal anymore,
you know we're in trouble. I mean, they're gonna be
Airbnb in city Hall pretty soon. So what's really interesting
is that, and this was where I had trouble. Now
suddenly being in government is somebody who's very much about
like more libertarian principles and not taxing citizens. You suddenly
(05:24):
realize in government, your revenue comes from taxes, essentially in
some form or another, and or ultimately just like raising
you know, kind of raising the level of increasing revenue
so that you can keep taxes at a low rate,
but then by virtue of the grand share, your income
goes up. As a city, that's really it. I mean,
that's your income. You can be creative about it and
(05:44):
create public and private partnerships. But what's what I find
fascinating about the Santa Monica conversation, the Los Angeles conversation,
is that they've got the highest sales tax, they've got
the highest taxes on absolutely everything, including property taxes, and
they're developing left and right, so they should have the
budget crisis that perhaps some other cities, right like Huntington Beach,
(06:04):
We have the lowest sales tax in Orange County altogether.
It would be very easy for us to just increase
it by a point or a half a point, but
we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's not what the voters want.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
We got to be creative about how we increase our
revenue and we're able to balance the budget. And then, furthermore,
for all cities in California, I think it's important to
note how much comes down from Sacramento and how many
things like, let's just this is just one example SB
thirteen eighty three, which basically requires that cities now have
to work with their waste disposal companies and they've got
(06:33):
to compost and they add I have to add more
recycling elements. Right, it's this kind of like environmental regulatory
piece now that to push down the cities costs these
cities millions and millions of dollars right in conjunction with
their waste hollers. It's just that's just one element that
we don't even talk about that's mandated. So right, So
(06:54):
there's so much that comes down the pipeline that we
can't forecast and understand from Sacramento that cities really need
more independence so that they can oversee their budgets.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, it's specifically in Santa Monica. They also point to
this settlement that they had to pay out two hundred
and twenty nine million in settlements plural because of the
sexual abuse by a former police dispatcher there. One hundred
and eighty claimants came forward lawsuits like that, whether it's
an assault lawsuit, slip and fall lawsuit. I mean, the
(07:26):
one time I was ever called to a jury was
a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for off
duty guy working movie security, movie studio security ran into
a city operated dump truck and was traumatic brain injury
for the rest of his life. Those kinds of payments,
(07:49):
those kinds of you know, legal responsibilities that these cities
are dealing with, they're overwhelming. I mean, city of La City,
a county of Los Angeles, they're dealing they themselves are
millions and millions of dollars that have to be paid
out because of the mistakes of usually just a one
or two or a few people.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, and it's I mean I see it all the
time working within the city. Handfuls tons of lawsuits and
there's also a cadre of trial attorneys, almost a small
institution of trial attorneys now that know that they can
target the cities as well. So I mean they're essentially
pilfering from the funds of these cities. It's now incumbent
upon the cities to place a certain amount of money
(08:28):
aside in anticipation of these lawsuits. But how much, right,
And it keeps going up and up and up, And
that's money that otherwise could be in treasury and could
be making a return on it. I find it somewhat
poetic that, you know, a lot of these Los Angeles
cities are the ones who enforced the you know, enforced
a lot of the policies that allowed for these lawsuits
to exacerbate out of control.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But everybody is suffering the consequences, all right. Chef Andrew
Gruhl has joined us. Will continue with the Gary and
Shannon Show, including another story this an apartment building that
is ripping a town apart up in northern California.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
One of the founders of Supertramp died. His name was
Rick Davies. He co wrote the band's music with Roger Hodgson.
They said he was the voice and the pianists behind
Supertramp's most iconic songs and leaves an indelible mark on
rock music history. Died after a long battle of cancer
at the age of the age of eighty one. Postal
(09:30):
traffic into the United States has dropped, they said by
more than eighty percent after the Trump administration ended the
tariff exemption on low cost imports. Universal postal unions as
they started rolling out new measures that could help postal
operators around the world calculate and collect duties. After the
US eliminated the Deminimus exemption for the low value parcels,
(09:50):
eighty eight postal operators have said they suspended some or
all postal service to the United States until a solution
could come in. But again, eighty percent dropped by more
than eighty percent after they ended their tariff exemption to
Minimus exemption. Chef Andrew Gruhle and City Council Member Andrew
Gruhle has your one person has joined us today on
(10:15):
the Gary and Shannon Show, and I wanted to talk
about some of these issues that I know you've had
to deal with at the city. Not necessarily exactly, but
at that city level. A bunch of people who live
in Fairfax, not the Fairfacs district here in La Fairfax,
the town up in Marin County. They are dealing with
a six story apartment building. These people are losing their
(10:38):
minds because they believe that a six story apartment building
is going to be an eye sore and listen, it
is a rather bucolic little town Fairfax. So six story
you know, if you're here in southern California, six story
apartment building doesn't sound all that awful. But the city
is doing this. The city is trying to figure this out.
The vice mayor fail is a recall vote along with
(11:01):
the mayor over the project. They said, the design is
cookie cutter, it's cheap, and it does not fit within
the esthetic. But the voting actions have always been mindful
of protecting the town from liability litigation and penalties, which
kind of goes hand in hand with what we were just
talking about with Santa Monica dealing with these budget issues.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, well, the housing piece is a whole other conversation.
So you know, you have hounding housing mandates. Every city
has to have a housing element where they basically say
here's where we can put in all this affordable housing,
and in the state mandates how many affordable housing units
every single city has to have. So if you don't
have a housing element in place, that basically allows for
(11:40):
the development of that number of affordable housing units, which,
by the way, most affordable housing projects aren't one hundred
percent affordable, right You might have twenty percent that's affordable
in eighty percent, and then you kind of mix mix
market on it. So the numbers are excessive. And that
was Newsome's plan to be able to introduce more affordable
housing throughout California. Let's just push it down onto the cities.
(12:02):
But I find fascinating about this fairfact story is that
they voted sixty seven percent Democrat for Newsome, so this
is his policy. They voted for this policy, but now
they don't want it in their backyard. And that's what
it always comes down to, is that not am I,
somebody else has to do it. Right, You can't stay here,
but we're going to let you in. You can't do
You got to build housing, but other cities have to.
(12:23):
We don't have to. I think jam it up six
eight ten stories in Fairfax.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Why not? I think that's one of the one of
the issues of policy, to use the word carefully, one
of the issues of policy that is frustrating again as
a voter, as somebody who goes to the polls to
make these decisions about policies that are going to be
in effect for our neighborhood, for our city, for our county,
(12:49):
for our state, and there are other people who don't
have any clue about what actually is being asked of them.
They don't have any clue about what the the impact
would be of their decision, whether it's yes or no.
I mean, think back Prop one high speed rail has
been one of those things that is unfortunately for fans
(13:10):
of high speed rail, this project in California is absolute
proof that voters can be completely moronic and fooled by
people who want to have whatever pet project that they
want to have.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
And you know, I'll even take a step back and
I won't say moronic just because I'm up for reelection.
I would say I would say no, I would say manipulated.
I think voters can be easily manipulated because if you
think about it, right, kind of the drive by voter
who's got, you know, working at nine to five or
in many cases, you know, an eight to eight uh
and just doesn't have the time to digest the granular
(13:46):
detail on a lot of these headlines.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
They live by the headlines.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
And as we know, and especially when these propositions are written,
they're written by psychologists who are able to manipulate and
tweak and change the wording so that you're not actually
voting for what you think you're voting for. I think
that's what we've seen with a lot of the propositions.
But furthermore, local politics are the most important, you know,
politics in your life. You get up in the morning,
you go out of your cars, your carbon stolen? No,
(14:10):
you hit the street. Are there potholes in the street?
Did you get a flat?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's a pretty good day so far.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, Like, these are all elements that come from public
works and all of the people that you put on
those boards and commissions. But we we have a tendency
to focus on the national stuff, right like these big
cultural issues frankly, which don't affect our day to day lives.
And I think we need to get back to that,
and we also need to look at all these proposition
titles and descriptions with you know, kind of through a
(14:36):
different scope, A certainly an inquisitive scope.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Do you think it should be taken out of the
hands of the Secretary of State. Isn't that who's responsible
for about titles and descriptions and things. Yeah, I think
it should be a non partisan commission of three and
three and one. Don't even start with commissions, because now
we're trying to take away the power from the non
partisan commission that was put in place by who, by
voters to draw districts for congre Okay, but that leads
(15:03):
us actually into this next segment, because there was a
big meeting over the weekend California Republican Party that got
together and they are, depending on how you look at it,
either energized by this fight over jerrymandering and redistricting, or
they're just trying to figure out how how to pull
this thing together. I mean, the Republican Party in California
(15:26):
has some similarities to the National Democratic Party in that
they're trying to find a way forward in the face
of great opposition. So we'll talk about that when we
come back.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
In the twelve o'clock hour, We're going to do our
Gas Fantasy for play recap, talk about how that first
week went. The Chargers did win down in Sal Paulo, Brazil.
They beat the Chiefs. Rams beat the Texans yesterday fourteen
to nine. Over at so Far. Tonight, Monday Night football
is going to be Vikings, Bears, Angels are going to
host the Twins. Tonight, the Dodgers will host the Colorado Rockies.
(16:06):
They're going to be coming into town. Also a reminder,
our News and Brus is coming up Monday, September twenty second,
two weeks from today. We're gonna be live at Bjay's
Restaurant and Brewe House in West Covina, right there on
Eastland Center Drive, doing the show live from nine until one.
We'll trying to see what kind of trouble we can
get into on a Monday again, Monday, September twenty second,
(16:27):
at BJ's Restaurant and Brewe House in West Covine at
Eastland Center Drive. It was great to meet a bunch
of people. On Saturday, I was out in Sebe Valley
along with Conway and Dean Sharp, and a bunch of
people were out there to help celebrate American Vision Windows
and their twenty fifth anniversary celebration. So Bill and Kathleen
were out there saying hi to everybody and thank it
everybody for helping make that such a great company. So
(16:48):
it's nice to meet everybody. Chef Andrew Gruhl has joined us.
He's gonna be with us all day today talking about
all kinds of stuff. We'll get it's been at it's
been a little heavy, I'll tell you that. But we
will get to some lighter stuff in the next couple
of next couple of segments, including a terror and the
sky is coming up in a bit. But over the weekend,
the California Republican Party got together and had their fall
(17:12):
convention down in Orange County. Although it's not quite fully yet,
but we're not gonna we're not gonna fault them for that.
And it's the way the La Times writes this up.
They say the generally speaking, it's great time to be
a Republican if you're in DC. Everything is Republican. Trump
has put gold leaf on everything. There's a new Rose
Garden Party Club or whatever it is. But it's a
(17:35):
bad time to be a Republican in California. Outnumbered in
terms of voter registration out number two to one. When
it comes to the state legislature, haven't won a statewide
office for twenty years, nineteen years, and Republicans are struggling
to find some sort of a foothold. But they may
have it in this whole fight over Prop fifty, which
(17:55):
is the gerrymandering redistricting effort. Governor Newsom is responding to
what happened in Texas with the redrawing of congressional maps
and it has to go to the voters here in California,
and Republicans are hoping that this is a very clear message, Hey,
don't give Gavin Newsom in the state legislature more power.
(18:17):
That's it, because you can't talk about redistricting. That's a
yawner that no one cares about it. Nobody knows what
the word jerry mandering means unless you're back in you know,
sophomore in high school and learning about it from from
the history books.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah, jerry mander. I feel like I should. That's a
sandwich I need to put on the menu.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
It's a good idea, you know, but it would be
like it would be baked, it would be a bread
that doesn't have uniform shape to it or something like that.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That's a great call, and that's the worst way to
make a sandwich. So one side maybe has all the
tomatoes and it's a Chipotle burrito when they're not rolled properly.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Or two different slices of bread. You got a rye
on top and then you've got some you know, heavy
wheat on the bottom of some kind. I actually might
like that that it introduces a whole new foundation. But look,
you know, I mean GOP.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
The GOP here in California is obviously mobilized by the
opposition to this, And that's a really good point you
bring up, is we can't obvious gate the facts here
and confuse people with the detail on Jerry manderin this
just specifically, is your area going to get represented with
these new maps that are drawn. I think most people
don't even understand their maps that are being drawn. This
comes out to getting out the vote, because if you
(19:24):
live in an area now which is fundamentally going to
change by virtue of that representation because of the way
in which they drew it. Take Huntington Beach as an
example of Orange County. Right now, you've drawn Long Beach
into that significantly. They are two distinctly different cities, especially
in regards to the way in which they look at policy.
You need to motivate people to get out and vote
(19:46):
against that. And this might be the issue that motivates
to people because it's always about getting out the vote,
right it is.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I think the basic issue, like I said, it shouldn't
be or if you're gonna sell it, it can't. The
main message can't be about redistricting. It's got to be
about the power that exists in those halls in Sacramento.
We voted, We voters voted in two thousand and eight,
I think in twenty ten as well, to give the
(20:15):
power of district drawing to an independent commission, to keep
it out of the hands of the legislature so that
this thing wouldn't happen, that this kind of I don't know,
artificial manufactured seats didn't cause problems. And now, even if
(20:39):
even if you believe that Texas did the wrong thing,
that they bowed to President Trump, they're going to redraw
their districts so that they gain five Republican seats. Even
if you think that's right, I'm sorry, Even if you
think that was wrong doing, this thing here does not
make that right. Two wrongs don't always come out on
(21:00):
the positive here, and one doesn't alter the actions of
the other.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
So Newsome has specifically said this is regardless of what
Texas does.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
We're doing this now right.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Originally he tethered it to that action in Texas, but
now he's kind of cut that tether, if you will,
and I call this Gavin Mandarine. That's what it really is.
It's Gavin Mandarin. And I think that that's much more
memorable and sticky, if you will. I think you are
one hundred percent correct in that it is. Do you
want to give more power to the unelected bureaucrats, because
(21:32):
that's what this comes down to. Most of California is
being managed by the unelected bureaucrats right now, all the
single letter agencies, the Coastal Commission, carb right. I mean
I could go on and on and on, and we
see it on a city level. Or if you're just
a business owner, you know about these these boards, these commissions,
these unelected bureaucrats, because they're running your life day in
and day out. So we're gonna now give them more
(21:53):
power to control and manipulate the way in which we're
represented within the state.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
No way, no way. It's a fascinating a plan if
you know somebody who has worked on these these district
maps before. Basically you have to come up with a
shape of you know, outline wherein there are I think
it's seven hundred and seventy thousand people per congressional district,
(22:18):
whatever the population specifically the number is. But you can
take a couple of blocks from one neighborhood and then
give it to a different district, and then change an
entire neighborhood several blocks of what and you you end
up with looks like Lake Nasamiento. I mean, it's it's
this fragmented, it's you know, it makes zero sense if
(22:42):
you're trying to describe how you're going to draw a
map to include the right number of people to be
represented by one representative in Congress. I don't like you said,
I don't think people understand the intricacies of and the
manipulation that's available to the people who are actually drawing
the map. If I asked my four year old to
(23:02):
draw a picture of an Ardvark, it would probably have
more composition and design than these new redistricted maps. From
the Ardvark District in California. All Right, a little bit
of fun taror in the sky's hard landing in the
Caribbean and somebody dropped into a watermelon field outside Valencia.
I didn't know there were watermelon fields out there. That's
(23:23):
coming up next.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Chef Andrew Gruhle has joined us in place of Shannon today.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Hey, guys, I wanted to thank Andrew for helping to
oh keep us all up during COVID, and I really
appreciate how he fought for the little guy because God knows,
the small restaurants couldn't stay open, but the change here
(23:56):
could and that was a fiasco. And anyway, thanks you
both and have a great week.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Thank you for that. Yeah, that was one of the
things that was the twit landed you on the radar
in my house, was was your policy when it came
to when it came to COVID. My wife worked in
a hospital and was blown away by the things that
were required of her and medical professionals, despite the medical
(24:24):
professionals knowing what they know about medicine. The ridiculous restrictions
on visiting people who were dying and things like that.
It just, I mean, it was mind blowing, and we
you know, we talked about it. Shannon and I came
in every day like we did. We never broadcast from home,
we never we were here every day, which was weird
because this whole the entire place was a ghost town.
(24:47):
And it was one of those things that it felt
like we were just being told things for the sake
of being told things that the health mechanisms that are
out there public health generally, but La County public Health specifically,
they were just trying to They were trying to act
as if they knew what the whole situation was, and
(25:09):
they never had a great clear picture of it.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Well, your suspicions were confirmed, obviously, because the people who
were telling us things were not doing what they were
telling us to do, as seen by all the videos
and pictures for two years straight, including public health officials.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
So you were right, Yeah, it was you did the
right thing. How is the restaurant business, I mean, are
we back anywhere close to what we were in twenty nineteen?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
It depends on what metric you're looking at, right, So
it fundamentally changed the nature of the restaurant business altogether,
right from labor to cost of goods all the way
across to a lot of the regulations that came out
after COVID which were unrelated from COVID specifically, but part
of kind of the culture of COVID, right, there was
a culture of COVID that went beyond medical.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So it's been tough.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And then you had this influx of money, so with
the PPP, the employee retention credits, and then ultimately a
lot of the rest of the money that was pumped
into the econ to me. A lot of that distilled
and trickled down in two restaurants, but it also increased
the price of goods, and it increased the cost of
labor and all the other regulatory elements that hit our
bottom line.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And then add to that the.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Inflation twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, a lot of
those restaurants who were flushed with cash who opened more
spaces closed right, So then you had this graveyard of
restaurants and then people taking that picking it up and
opening second generation restaurants and then running into headwinds with
the current economy. So you know, it's had highs. It's
these crazy peaks, right, these crazy highs and lows, and
(26:33):
it seems like they've been quick highs and lows, very quick.
That's that's the thing, and that's where it's been very
hard for banks to predict, you know, safe investments, so
you're losing capital and access to capital as a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
People want to.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Move into a much more secure asset from an investment perspective,
and by people I mean banks, et cetera. So that's
one of the biggest difficulties. And then subsequently, the you
know changing or not changing of interest rates and what
we've seen with interest rates going so high up that
also makes it much more difficult to be able to
access capital for restaurants, so you don't see as much growth.
(27:08):
So a lot of those spaces that went under a
sitting dormant because nobody's now able to refresh or regentrify them.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
And restaurant space can be very specific, right, I mean,
usually it's a space. If you're opening a restaurant, unless
you had the luxury of building from the ground up,
you're probably occupying someone's old restaurant space.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah, you're retrofiting. Hopefully you are because you're retrofitting into that.
Because but even in the short period of time, as
I said, as California government has gotten so much bigger,
they've run out of things to legislate and argue about.
So they just keep adding more and more regulations on
the docket. So let's say I opened a restaurant in
twenty twenty three, I put a hood in, which is
really the cost is the mechanical, the electrical, and the plumbing,
(27:48):
all of those elements. In twenty twenty five, the regulatory
kind of requirements could be totally different because Sacramento was
so bored they decided to throw another one hundred regulations
on there that I can't even use as a second
generation restaurant. I've got to put a whole new hood in,
or a new electric system or a new plumbing or what.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Have you got to keep them safe? Right? Is it
all safety based? Is it?
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's well, that's going back to my point about SB
thirteen eighty three.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
A lot of it is environmental, right, So it's subjective.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Okay, yeah, you know, so the disposal of X, Y
and Z, or how many garbage cans you need, or
how many parking spaces based on the California Coastal Commission's
new level of insanity. I mean they're just drinking some
juice over there that I'd like a sip of.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, let's get into a quick Terror in the skies
flight zero n I, or you.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Are a glare for the day off Roger, get off
my plane, Progerick Rogers's vector, Victor.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Enough is enough I have had with these Multy pipe
and snakes on this money.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
It's Gary and Shannon's.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Terror in the Skies on KFI. So a plane from
Toronto on its way to San Martin ended up bouncing
after landing on at the airport there and then skidding
down the runway. The west Jet twenty two seventy six
is landing gear probably collapsed while landing. They said the
(29:11):
pilot had to call for a may day, and they
said that they were going to evacuate. This was a
seven thirty seven. This was not a tiny little a
tiny little regional jet. This was a big old baby
seven thirty seven rolling down there. They sprayed foam across
the plane as a precaution. After the landing. They said
a couple of people taken for medical evaluation, just to
be cautious. But at this point, no big deal. The
(29:33):
thing is that specific airport is an Internet celebrity because
of the very dramatic low altitude approach right over the beach,
and there are people who stand on the beach and
they go and it looks like you can reach up
and touch the wheels of these planes.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I always wonder if those people are gonna get blown
out by the you know, kind of the exhaust.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
They are so close. Did you ever see the movie,
I want to say it was Moving ten something like
about air traffic controllers. I want to say Billy Bob
Thornton was in it. Okay, but there's a great scene
of them. He and I think there was another guy
air traffic controllers standing down at the end of one
of the runways and the plane comes in for a
(30:14):
landing over their heads and then they get blown away
by the by the jetwash, like just completely throwing off
their feet, tumbling backwards a couple hundred feet. It was
a great scene.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
You know, Orange County John Wayne Airport is one of
those short runways, so they got to do that hard
landing and then it just slams on the brakes. And
every time my kids know this They're like, Oh, we're
gonna take our seatbelt off and see if we can
handle it by just holding on to the you know,
the side whils. They're young, they don't understand I'm probably
never gonna be a lot on a plane again after that.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
And then there was a small plane that had engine
failure yesterday. Thankfully the pilot and her two passengers unharmed.
After the plane's engine failed yesterday, she put a put
a plane down into a watermelon field just west of
Magic Mountain. Crash report at just about five o'clock last night,
Henri Meo, driving the old road. The pilot told a
(31:04):
cameraman at the scene that the engine sputtered and stopped
after she left Santa Pola, which is just a little
bit west of there, and could not return the airport.
To return to the airport over the mountains, hills and
freeways and just said, hey, that looks like a watermelon
patch would be a pretty good alternative.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
So who's covering the cost of those lost watermelons? That's
what I want to know, is that the USDA or
is that the FAA.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
It's a good question. Maybe it comes out of her pocket.
And how do you get the airplane out of the
out of the watermelon field is a tow truck? Do
you take it up? You take the wings off and
throw it on the back of a truck or something.
I don't even know how to do that. I guess
there's there's people for that. All right. We'll get into
swamp watch when we come back, talk about some of
the stuff that's going on in DC, specifically about the
(31:46):
Supreme Court, but also why our attention spans are getting shorter,
and the chef has an opinion on whether or not
you should clean your kitchen at night. You've been listening
to the Gary and Shannon Show. You can always hear
live on KFI AM six forty nine am to one
pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app.
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