November 24, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode, host Michael Monks delves into the unique challenges of living in Downtown Los Angeles, focusing on homelessness and exploring what can be done for those who are resistant to assistance. He speaks with Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua about the homelessness issue in her community and efforts to address it. Michael also discusses the USC vs. UCLA rivalry game and is rejoined by guest Nick Pagliochini to highlight must-see holiday events in Southern California. They wrap up with recommendations on the best things to do in Los Angeles this holiday season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty, on.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Demand, KFI AM six forty and everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News, joining you until nine
o'clock tonight, a little bit of Reba McIntyre to get
this cold November.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Night going again.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Those of you casually following the USC UCLA game. Bruins
took an early lead here in the first leading three
to nothing. We'll keep an eye on that for you
if you're not watching it. Give you some scores. Trojans
threatening to score a touchdown as we speak. Let's see
if it happens. There's the throat of the end zone.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Not yet.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
All right, three nothing Bruins. We'll keep an eye on that.
Like I said, if you were listening last hour, you
heard me talk about my honeymoon that I still feel
like I'm on with La in California. It's almost two years.
In January, I will have lived here for two years,
and you know it's still romantic to me right driving around,
spotting the mountain, the palm trees at sunset, the downtown
(01:04):
LA skyline from a distance, It's all still so beautiful
to me, in spite of all of the challenges, how
expensive it is, how dirty it can be sometimes, how
irritating it can be. I've asked you to participate in
this conversation, which you can do on the iHeartRadio app
pressing that talkback button. Send me your perspective, send a
short message. We're going to play some of them throughout
(01:24):
the hour. I do want to play one that we
got about the honeymoon period.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Michael, congratulations on your honeymoon. I, however, have been here
for forty years from the East Coast, mind you, and
I'm ready to get a divorce.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
California has taken more.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Than half of my money, and I'm done. Time for
me to move on. All the best to you, well.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
All the best to you too on your next honeymoon
wherever you land. Sir, thanks for the call. I understand.
I moved here in January. You have twenty three and
had a good chunk of change that I thought was
gonna get us through until a job came along. And
it is crazy how fast money just flies out the window.
But the catalyst for that honeymoon conversation was the fact that, honestly,
(02:15):
the most attractive thing it is not even just the
opportunities that are out here. If you can get lucky
and make it, boy, can it pay off big for you.
It's the It's the weather, and I mean all of
the weather. Of course. I like the summer. It's pretty
mild where I live in the region. And then the
winter is so perfect because it does get cold, but
it's not like brutally cold the way it is back home.
(02:37):
And so in spite of it all, inspite of how
expensive it is, I'm still happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You know, it's still romantic to me. But tell me
how you feel.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Pull up the iHeartRadio app and click on that talk
back and we'll listen to you. One thing that is
certainly a challenge for all of us is the homelessness
in southern California. And I live downtown Downtown LA and
the Fanmi district wish is what a real estate agent
probably wouldn't refer to as skid row near, but as
absolutely skid row near. I can see it from my
(03:10):
window and my loft department there in the Fashion district, and.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It is a tragedy.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But I find as a newsperson who covers the organization's
charged with addressing it, whether it be a government entity
or a quasi government entity or some social services agency.
The conversation lacks a certain level of authenticity that those
of us who experience directly have because we hear about
(03:39):
the lack of affordable how we've got to build housing,
we have to offer housing.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And that's true.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Of course, there are people who face eviction because of
how expensive it is to live here. There are folks
who will end up on the streets because they can't
afford to keep their homes. That's all true. But those
are not the people that you're seeing on skid road.
Those are not the people probably who were walking on
the freeway and got run over this week three different
(04:10):
times here in La pedestrians on the freeway hit and killed.
And we don't have an honest enough conversation about the
homelessness because these are not people who missed last month's
rent that I see downtown, that you probably see on
(04:30):
Hollywood Boulevard, that you probably see in San Bernardino, that
you see all over southern California. These are folks who
are having serious mental health breakdowns. These are people addicted
to drugs, and something needs to be done right WHOA
we are doing stuff we're spending a lot of money.
(04:52):
We even just approved as voters in La County that
we would like to spend more. We're raising on ourselves
the sales tax from a quarter of percent to half
a cent. And not only that, we're not putting a
sunset clause on it. It can just go forever if we want.
But there are a lot of questions about how this money.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Is being used.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
We talked last week with the city Controller about how
the City of LA budgeted one point four billion dollars
for homelessness efforts and so far this year spent about
half of it. And now we have the Los Angeles
Housing Services Agency WISH is an organization that is funded
(05:40):
by the City of LA and the County of La.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Together.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
They are the entities that appoint the board members. An
audit is out and it's not good. And now what
you're hearing in the aftermath of this audit, county official,
we want to get out of it. We need to
have our own homeless department. A city official, we want
to get out of it. We should have our own
(06:04):
homeless department. So even these massive efforts to fix homelessness regionally,
it's just not working. And the conversation is not authentic enough.
We see it every day as residents in neighborhoods where
homeless camps exist, where our v camps exist. We see
(06:28):
them walking into the middle of traffic. We see them
walking into businesses and disrupting them. We see open air
drug use. And the money that's being spent to solve
this problem is being mismanaged. The County Auditor Controller Department
cited several concerns about lasa's management of homeless funding. They
(06:50):
failed to recoup cash advances that they gave to subcontractors,
They failed to establish repayment schedules for subcontractors. They lack
adequate record for tracking cash advances that they've given to
other agencies, and they have failed to adequately monitor the
contracts with those recipient agencies and have failed to document
(07:13):
subcontractors who received funds to see if they actually met
the terms of those contracts. Now, LASA says, they excuse me.
LASA says that, yeah, there are some problems, but we've
been working on this, right, we're working on this.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
We're going to fix this.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And they point to the fact that in the last
homeless count, for the first time in a decade, the
population living.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Outside actually dropped by a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So the policies are allegedly working, sure doesn't feel that way.
And that's a pretty scathing audit that came out that
says this agency is not handling its contracts well, is
not handling its money. And now the chair of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Lindsey Horror, has said
we probably need a county homeless department rather than relying
(08:07):
on LASA. By the way, Supervisor w Horvath is the
vice chair of the LASA board. I saw a report
with city Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who has been harping on
LASA for a long time and has also called for
the city to have its own homeless department. So this
is not getting better anytime soon. And because of the
(08:29):
regional failures, you're seeing some cities decide to take it
into their own hands, especially in the wake of that
US Supreme Court ruling that allows them to clean up
camps if they don't want them there. That's what's happening
in the Orange County city of Santa Anna the county seat,
and I'm going to be talking to the mayor next
(08:50):
she's had it with the unruly behavior of homeless people
that refuse to improve their lives. That conversation is coming
up next.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's KFI AM six forty live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News here with you until
nine o'clock. Usc UCLA noted up at three apiece at
the top of the second quarter here keep an eye
on that game over at the Rose Bowl as these
two Big ten also rans battle it out and the
(09:26):
fourteenth annual KFI Pastathon is also here. Chef Bruno's charity,
Catterina's Club, provides more than twenty five thousand meals every
week to kids in need in Southern California. And your
generosity makes it all happen. And there are three ways
that you can help. You can donate right now at
KFI AM six forty dot com slash Pastathon, or shop
(09:47):
at any Smart and Final store and donate any amount
at the checkout. Or head into any Wendy's restaurant in
Southern California and donate five bucks or more and you
get a coupon book for Wendy's goodies. You can also
join our all day live broadcast from the Anaheim White
House Beautiful Restaurant on Giving Tuesday, December three.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Coming out and see us.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
We'll be broadcasting from five o'clock in the morning until
ten o'clock at night on that Tuesday. You can donate
on site and drop off all that pasta, all that sauce.
One hundred percent of your donations will go to the
Catarinas Club. In Santa Ana, the city council has delayed
a vote on whether it wants to be a little
harsher to some of those homeless camps. They are now
(10:29):
empowered by a decision by the US Supreme Court. And
I talked with Santa Anna Mayor Valeria Mesqua. What does
it look like right now in Santa Ana, Mayor.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Well, we have them all over our city. We have
them on our bus benches, we have them on our streets,
we have them near our schools, we have them in
our neighborhoods. You know our numbers. When the last count
of May twenty twenty four was eight hundred and seventy
one unsheltered, and it's an increase from the year of
twenty twenty two. I'm going to say that there could
(11:01):
possably be more. I drive the city every single day,
and we have a serious problem like many other cities.
But because we're the county seat and we provide services
at social services, mental health, the courts, the jails, we
just have homeless people slash criminals all over our city
(11:22):
and they're disrupting our community.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
What are you hearing from members of the community about this?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
So I get emails every day and usually with pictures
attached to them of naked people walking down the street,
the naked women regularly at Memorial Park, Pictures of people
injecting needles into their arms, a bus stops, people with
their pants down, people defecating, passed out on the streets,
(11:51):
in front of children, in front of school sites. The
list goes on and on, and.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I guess with situations like that, it seems like it's
a bigger situation than housing policy. You know, a lot
of sympathy is expressed towards the whole most population, but
it doesn't seem to take into account some of these
mental health situations. So are you finding that these camps
tend to be full of people who are engaged in
(12:18):
bad behavior?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
So let me share with you with Santana has first
because I'm very proud of the workers the city staff
have done. Along with the police department. We have a
smart Team, which is a Santanna multidisciplinary response team which
works with city staff and City Net. It's a non
police response. They make contact with them, they offer them services,
offer them shelter. Remember Santa Ahnah has two shelters, one
(12:41):
city ren city owned we full wrap round services and
one by the county. So we have six hundred bags
available in our city with both of them. Then we
have what's called the Quality of Life Team. We had one,
now we have two and again multidisciplinary team as a
police department working with city Net and our city these staff.
So do we have issues, do we have clients or
(13:04):
I'll stay homeless people I'm going to say, slash criminals
on our street with mental health issues? Yes, we do
severe mental health severe, but our city Net team, our
city staff, our police officers are always offering services. What
we are dealing with now the reports that I read
or that I hear from the police department, when I
speak to officers, or when I speak to city staff,
(13:27):
or when I speak to our homeless team, is that
it's the resistant population. Now, this is the resistant population.
This isn't the population that wants to go to a program.
This isn't the population that wants to get off the street,
get a job, help with employment, things of that nature,
because the City of Santa Ana has all of that
available to them. You want a job, we can help you.
(13:49):
You want to get off the streets, we can help you.
We have met and exceeded the requirements for affordable housing.
We are always building, so I no longer believe it's
just a housing issue. This is the resistant population that
wants to get high, wants to rob people, wants to
live on the street, wants to engage in illegal activity,
(14:11):
whether it's prostitution, open drug use. You know, we've had
children assaulted at a bus stop in front of one
of our school sites. They came out of the channel.
A guy came out of our channel and he assaulted
two students, two children. So I cannot close my eyes
to this. I know. I work very closely with counsel
in Penalosa, Councilvan de Sarah, you know, city staff, police department.
(14:35):
We can't keep making excuses saying it's a housing issue,
it's a mental health issue. There is a mental health problem.
There is a lack of services for them.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Do you think that, Please go ahead to.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Say the city of Ares we have services, we do
and they just don't want them.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Do you have any concerns, as a leader of a
city about what this Supreme Court ruling might do for
the relationships between cities If one city takes a certain action,
a different city takes a different action. Do you think
there could be some damage relationships about shuffling homeless people around?
Speaker 5 (15:15):
I would like to believe no, because I think as
mayors and as elected officials, as leaders in cities, we
should all be getting together and talking about how we
can help each other. I'm not going to point the
finger at the city or that city. Do people bring
their homeless to the City of Santana, Yes, they do.
I'm going to say that have we seen anything, Have
(15:37):
we caught anybody? No? We have not, But have I
asked community leaders and people who live in our city
please watch out for that. If you see another city
dropping them off, please let us know and we will
speak with that city. We don't want problems with another city.
We're not going to be dropping out any of our
people there. That's just not what I would ask anybody
(15:57):
to do, and I would hope that in return and
they would not do the same. You have la with
the Olympics coming with Los Angeles. Where where are their
homeless going? Right? Where are they going to go? You know,
you hear the rumors, Oh, San Francisco's getting bus passes.
I don't know that, but it's you know, been talked
about Senior Santana. We're not giving you a bus pass
(16:18):
and saying get it out again of our city. We've
been we have done such a great job in handling
people and dealing with people and helping people in a
very humane, holistic way. But it is at the point
now where with this scrabs path, it gives us ability
to say, can't sleep on our bus pedge, you can't
sleep on our street, you can't run around naked. You
need to take services. If you don't take them, here
(16:39):
are your options. The options is you go to a program.
You we could reunify you with your family. The employment
we're going to cite you could be a misdemeanor, could
be an intraction. But after a while, we're going to
keep contacting you over and over and over and over again.
You're going to get tired of seeing our police department
(17:00):
man our city need team and the services. You're just
going to get tired of it. And I either you're
going to move out of our city or you're gonna
do better with your life.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Valerie Mesquez is the mayor of Santa Anna. We'll continue
to follow that story, and it's going to get weird
around here as those cities all across Southern California start
approaching homelessness differently, and those who are more aggressive against
the camps and those who are softer are going to
see the populations probably shift. So it's something that we
need to keep an eye on, especially as these agencies
(17:31):
charged with fixing homelessness are having some challenges of their
own and the governments that monitor them have questions about
how to move forward.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
What a strange time.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
But up next, we're going to have a little bit
of a friendlier conversation and it's going to be about
the places you need to check out in Southern California
for the holidays, the biggest traditions, the smallest traditions, and
you can share your tips as well on the iHeartRadio
app through the talk back button.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeart
Radio app and Michael Monks from KFI News here cleaning
up the last half hour rithy till nine o'clock. Right now,
six to three, USC leading Ucla, that little crosstown rivalry
going on Big ten action. Who are you pulling for
at the Rose Bowl? Sorry, I just hope both teams
(18:21):
have a good time. See stop, you know, at least
pick a color. No, I'm like I said, I'm a
transplant here. I'm not a particular fan of either of
those universities. I'm gonna pick an underdog like I'm starting with,
like Long Beach State. You know, you know Division one football,
right Kentucky, And they're not good this year. They're really
not good most years, but you know this year it's
(18:41):
been particularly brutal.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
They got their butts whooped at Texas.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You know, I'm watching this game as a fan of
Los Angeles.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Good man, I love that. Now I come in here
your rejoint, so go ahead, take you back to Sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know, I mean you've your big ball of energy
that just comes in and starts producing live on demand.
That's Nick Pyliokini. You probably hear him doing some traffic reports.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
In this morning, you know here with a wake up
call with Amy King or the Bill Handle Show or
Gary Shannon or on the L and K Morning Show
on Coast one oh three point five our sister station,
which is now your holiday music station all the way
through December.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
You are my personal holiday music station right this, sir,
because you've rolled in in a Santa cap I have.
You've got a sweater on that is giving me mixed signals.
I gotta be hony is so candy cane, snowflakes and
a jackal lantern.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
I do so if you know me, My birthday is
actually Halloween. So Halloween is an incredibly important time and
so I do thirty one days of Halloween teas and
so much more. But right now it is creep it
real festive in Orange County happening at the Heritage Museum
of Orange County in Santa Ana. So big shout out
to the event that's happening right now. In fact, I
was there last night, had an incredible time with Crampis,
(19:46):
which is a big part of Christmas, and that's exactly
what we're going to talk about pretty much for the
rest of the show tonight is all the things that
you can do in and around southern California to really enjoy,
not just Thanksgiving, because I know you like one holiday
at a time.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
I do, even though we have this incredible tree.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
And also if you want to check out what's going
on here in studio with us here at KFI, you
can go to Nick paulinio'kini or this week I of
a Nick on Instagram and be able to see us
live and the beautiful tree that we have from Alda
Comb here in studio at KFI. But Creep at Real
Oc always does a Halloween event, but they also do
a mashup of when holidays collign, just like night Member
before Christmas, so that's a Colleen and Christmas, so a
(20:25):
lot of fun. They do a Crampis crump or Crampis
Clop so they have all the different crampus from Crampus
would be allegedly and if you've seen Red One which
is in theaters now, which is a great film, a
lot of Fun is actually Santa's brother and so Crampis
is what happens when you may be a naughty child
(20:45):
and cramps. There's a lot of lare around that we
won't talk about all the time you were visited by
crampis a few times.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
There might have been a bit of.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Coal in my stocking. So yes, definitely that. So that
is something that is something you could have done this weekend.
But let's jump into the things you can do. Want
to talk about this because look, yeah, I love Christmas. Yeah,
of course I like Thanksgiving first. I've believen getting through
things before you totally focus on Christmas.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Although I'm starting to get in the spear. We've got
the tree here in the studio. You see some people
putting up some lights and you can't. And Coast, of course,
of course captures captures the spirit already on the airwaves.
So the Christmas music is playing on Coast and I
love that. However, you know, I've got my fall colors
on and you look great. I do look great, look fantastic.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
This is humility is amazing. Yeah, made for Kani.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Oh no kidding, Yeah, this is a great fall cardigan.
I'm looking forward to a chicken pot pie on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
That's nice. I'm excited. No no, no, no, Turkey is not
good oh, can we just accept that?
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Wait?
Speaker 6 (21:38):
No, because I like dark meat turkey. Okay, what what
is okay? Not to derail things? Because I'm going to
be a little bit going to the weeds here. What
is a traditional Kentucky Thanksgiving delicacy or a tree?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I think something that maybe southern influence is these the
sweet potatoes with more of a candied sweet sweet and
heightened eaten taste. Okay, marshmallows are involved. You ever have that?
Speaker 5 (22:03):
No?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Yeah, I make sure that it's almost like not brulaide,
I guess you would say, but make sure that you've
got that across the top, maybe a little extra char.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I like a little bit of me too.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I think that's something that people, you know, not are
necessarily used to. But I do love that dish. Okay,
I love corn bread.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
You know that's so.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
You're definitely a guy that's in for the sides, A
big sides guy.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I can go all sides. So not necessarily the protein.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
No, because the turkey. First of all, turkey is not
a good meat. And I don't know why we can't
just accept that it doesn't taste good. Right, It's not
a good meat, and I like the idea of the feast, right,
I like the feast.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
I like the family get together.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Sure, I suggested to my family back home years ago,
why aren't we just having like a lasagna? Okay, you know,
let's just have a feast. Let's have the spirit of
the holiday. But do we need the turkey?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
All right?
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Well, we now at Monk and we know at Michael
Monk's house you can plan on a lot of sides,
chicken pot pie. We're making a homemade chi and pot
pie this year, okay, and I hope it goes well.
Last year I cooked oh, okay, croc pot It was
like a layer of every Thanksgiving thing you would want, okay,
but chicken instead of turkey chicken, and then all the
sides basically piled up on top of each other and
(23:15):
then covered in cheese.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
It's delicious.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
So it sounds like you're really into the experience, which
I think is a great transition back into things to
do for the hat to you is not going to
bring it back to you, which is great because I
want to bring it back to the listener. Let's make
sure that we can really tap into what you should
do for the holiday. Let's use me to bring it
back to the listener. I love that I'm a guy
who is still relatively new here, have had one Christmas
with my second Christmas, which is great. What do you
(23:38):
gotta do to experience Christmas Southern Color? You living in
downtown LA, this is a great opportunity for you. Alamo
Draft House, which is a film or a theater house
for they have what is called a movie party. And
I actually got to experience this. And if you are
here in the studio, in fact, if you're following on
Instagram live, come on over here.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
You can see some of the fun.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
I got to go to an ELF Christmas party for
which is an opportunity for you to experience Elf, the
movie So with Will Ferrell, the old one but so
And this is one of the opportunities of the fun
and giveaway that I talked about last hour. You can
actually win tickets to go to this party or one
of the opportunities. So that's one of those things. We're
going to give out the number here shortly for you
to be able to win tickets. But this is where
(24:23):
you actually go and experience the film with a snowball
fight and Christmas wrapping contest and food from the movie
and all the different things you might be able to
get that. You know that maple syrup on the spaghetti
and everything else for that. But so this is all
going on at Alamo Draft House. It is one of
the opportunities there. And they don't want you to just
see the movie. They want you to experience the movie.
(24:43):
So Alamo Draft House is one of those great opportunities
pull us. They have the Holiday Wonderland menu which is
attributed to Wicked right now, which is in theater. So
that's something that you can check out. I want to
focus on experiences, sure, so not just things that you
can buy for the holidays, but get out and enjoy the.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Green Well, let me comment on that because that is
at the block right that almost at the bloc, the
bloc where the Macies is if you're trying to pinpoint
where it is right there on seventh on Seventh Street,
right And I love the block at Christmas because they
decorate in such a nice sweat out. It's beautiful. The
lights are gorgeous there. It's very instagrammable. It's right downtown
(25:21):
and highly recommend that you check it out. It's one
of my favorite spots. I think it's a great spot.
And another great spot is all the way down in
my neck of the woods, which is the Queen Mary
and Long Beach, Love Long Beach. So not quite yet,
but I have a pre opportunity for you to win
to visit the Twelve Days of Christmas at the Queen Mary.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Are we having a contest? Oh, we are.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
Definitely having a contest. So twelve days of Christmas. I've
got two a mission to general mission tickets for you
to be able to experience all the amazing things that
are be happening at the Twelve Days of Christmas, which
is kicked off with Santa Claus coming to town and
docking at the Queen Mary. So not just flying into town,
but being able to experience that. So that is another
opportun me with so much happening, with a tree lighting ceremony,
(26:03):
the stacks actually of the Queen Mary will be there.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And so much more.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Okay, so we've got tickets to give away to the
Twelve Days of Christmas at the Queen Mary. So just
before we go to this break, we should give out
the number. Yes we should, indeed, do I have it?
Speaker 5 (26:13):
You do?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's eight hundred five two zero one five three four.
The number to win these tickets to the Twelve Days
of Christmas at the Queen Mary and Beautiful Long Beach, California.
Eight hundred five two zero one five three four. We're
going to continue with Nick poulio'cheinni and the Christmas wish
List coming up.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Just ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I am Michael Monks from KFI News here to close
out the hour. And you heard me talk earlier about
the honeymoon. I'm on with California, not quite two years
a resident of LA and I asked for your perspective
as well.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Let's let's play another one of the messages we got.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Weather's great, it costs a lot. I'm old enough to
remember mortgage rates eighteen to twenty one percent, so you
find a way. And by the way, I bought gas
at Sam's Club this week for three sixty seven a gallon.
Not bad.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Bye, Hey, thanks for that message. We love when you
participate in our conversation, and I think that's the right attitude, right.
It's it's expensive to live out here, but you find
what you love about it, and you just remind yourself
about it every single day, even as the cost of
gas or groceries or housing goes up. I'm also excited
to still be joined by our good buddy Nick POULIOLKINI.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
Okay, but three sixty seven a gallon? Can we talk
about that. That's pretty good. That's good, that's surprisingly good. Now, granted,
I know everyde's gonna laugh. I drive an EV so
mine's plugging it good for you. But no, three sixty
seven is not not bad. I'm rolling around in a pathfinder, okay.
And so that's a SUV.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Dude, I get.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
I had a sway to wrap four before I went
with full I plugain, so I get it's.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Like eighty ninety dollars a fill up. No, dude, I
feel nuts. No, one hundred percent. Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So we're talking Christmas anywhere, We're talking Baby Santa will
bring us some more money, and we can just.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Let's let's not do that.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
So before the break, we talked about Alamo Draft Housing
downtown la is an epic thing.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
In fact, we do.
Speaker 6 (28:17):
We'll be getting winners here for the giveaways that we
had a little while ago. But so that and then
the Queen Mary Lighting of the Stacks ceremony coming up
here in the holiday market. Also talked about creep It
Real Festive in Orange County.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But if you ever tune in here to.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
KFI later with Mo Kelly in last year I had
this week went Nick Poulaiokanne. So this is kind of
a little bit of a homage to that. And so
I want to give you some free ninety nine, which
is always you know, last call in free ninety nine.
So what that is for you who maybe you didn't
catch that, and if you've not caught it before, last
call is something that you can only do this weekend,
which I'm not going to do because obviously we're already
in the weekend, so it's a little late for that.
(28:53):
But free ninety nine is always something that just cost
your time, something that doesn't cost anything. So I want
to talk about some of the incredible light places, the
places you can go visit that have some really incredible
light areas or so you can see some Christmas lights,
because I know you said you like one holiday at
a time. We already talked about that, but there are
some places in southern California that are gonna have some
really fun lighting areas for you to check out. So
(29:14):
one of the cooler places is Christmas Tree Lane and
that is going to be in the Altadena area, so
in the San Gabriel Valley in the you know, up
in the foothills.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah, not too far from here.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
So you can head the out of the Burbank area
if you take the one thirty four over the two ten.
This is when the traffic re quarter in here comes out.
Let me yeah exactly, So that's.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
A great thing.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Their lighting ceremony is going to be taking place on
December seventh, and then those holiday lights will be all
the way into the new year.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
But you can just head out there any given night.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
The houses are decked out in incredible Christmas lights and
you'll be able to do that. Also coming up on
December fourteenth, Marina del Rey Boat Parade is going to
be coming up on December fourteenth, and so that is
being able to see a lot of these beauty what
happens on that for those of us who don't know, sure,
So Marina Delray is going to be down toward the
South Bay, not in the South Bay itself, So if
you're going to go down the four oh five and
(30:00):
you're gonna go ahead again.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Traffic will always be there to help you out.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
But Marina del Rey is for all the beautiful boats
that are decked out in Christmas lights, and so you
get a parade of boats.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
Now you can also go over to Naples in the
Long Beach area, which has all the homes and the boats.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That are decked down.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
You kill that area, we'll go and walk around and
check out the boats, or into Orange County and you
can go down to the Peninsula and the Newport area
and also see all the boat parades that happen down there.
So there's a lot of opportunities for you. But also
speaking about Newport, I want to talk to you about
Once Upon a Island, which is usually happening during the
(30:38):
rest of the year, is now once upon a Christmas.
So Once Upon an Island is a mermaid encounter that
you can have. But right now Santa and his elves
have taken over this encounter that's in Newport Beach. So
you can learn about this and so much more this
weekend with Nick on Instagram or Nick Poliochani. In fact,
if you are joining us on Instagram right now at
Nick poliocann you can see us live in studio at KFI,
(30:59):
but you.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Can actually meet with Santa, and they have these incredible
portholes portholes portals.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Portals portholes like like portals, but they're not just portholes
on a ship, but they're portals that are port holes.
There are portholes that are portoles, so both p o
r t h o l e s that are pr
p o r t aa ls that are connected directly
to the North Pole. So you're able to interact with
(31:27):
Santa and actually go to the North Pole and visit
with him and his elves.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
So that is something that you can check out. But
also some of the opportunities for you in and around
southern California to enjoy our ice skating rinks.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
The one in per Square. I did it last year.
We had a great time. That is a vibe. It
is definitely really it's very protected and secured. It is
you know, if you're worried about coming downtown, if you
feel a little scared.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
It is a nice environment.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
It's a really nice environment. You've also gotten several in
Orange County and the Inland Empire. In fact, speaking of
the Iland Empire, one of my favorite places to go
at growing I was a kid, is going all the
way up to Santa's Village, which is at SkyPark, which
is up at rim of the World, so you had
to go up the fifteen freeway and it is incredible.
So it is one of my favorite places to visit.
(32:13):
And if you're looking for something fun and unique in
a little bit special, let's here a little closer to
home in the LA area. Two things I highly recommend
that if you're looking very date night, so if you
want something just for you and the missus clause, but
I'm Santa's Secret at the Beverly Center is an incredible
speakeasy and a burlesque show that you can check out.
And also you can see Frosty's, which is a bar
that is taken over and is just if let's say,
(32:37):
if Frosty the Snowman, Santa and Rudolph had a really
good party and then maybe just had a little bit
too much party to them and just it went everywhere.
That's one of those opportunities. So there's so much going
on around to do, and we can check you out
on Instagram to find out some more. Give the listeners
that handle one more time, so you got Nick paulinio'channe,
(32:57):
which is always a bit more challenging, but most of
you are very well aware.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Google it first. I bet you'll come up.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Any matter how you spell Paul OLKINI KFI, it will
come up.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
That is find all your social chech.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
Or the easy one is this weekend with Nick and
that's always the super simple easy one on ig to
find me or yeah, just like Michael said, but to
give a real quick shout out to thank you very much.
Rick Farcas from Thousand Oaks, it looks like you are
going to be a celebrating twelve days of Christmas at
the Queen Mary right, and it looks like Manny Martinez
from Carson City you are going to be enjoying well,
(33:28):
it looks like some time at the Alamo Draft House.
So thank you both for listening to KFI AM six forty,
and we appreciate you greatly.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
We do.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Indeed, it's always nice to see you Nick, or to
see you only for the first time, but we hear
you every morning giving the traffic here on KFI and
on coast, and it is Christmas time on coast, so
you get a little bit of Nick trash and a
little bit of Saint Nick Anddee.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
That's well done.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Okay, nice to see you and we hope to a
visit with you on one of these I mean, you
are such a festive guy You've got you'll see me.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, I'm going to see you out and about at
some of these things.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
As always, we appreciate you tuning into us on this
Saturday night. Michael Monks here with KFI News. It's been
my pleasure to talk about all these issues and more.
Hope to see you back here again next Saturday. We'll
talk a little bit of news and we'll talk a
little bit of culture again. You are all helping me
on this California journey. Why have I moved here? Still
figuring it out and finding my place in Greater La.
(34:20):
So thank you for tuning in and thank you for
participating in our conversation.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
KFI AM six forty on demand.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty, on.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Demand, KFI AM six forty and everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News, joining you until nine
o'clock tonight, a little bit of Reba McIntyre to get
this cold November.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Night going again.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Those of you casually following the USC UCLA game. Bruins
took an early lead here in the first leading three
to nothing. We'll keep an eye on that for you
if you're not watching it. Give you some scores. Trojans
threatening to score a touchdown as we speak. Let's see
if it happens. There's the throat of the end zone.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Not yet.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
All right, three nothing Bruins. We'll keep an eye on that.
Like I said, if you were listening last hour, you
heard me talk about my honeymoon that I still feel
like I'm on with La in California. It's almost two years.
In January, I will have lived here for two years,
and you know it's still romantic to me right driving around,
spotting the mountain, the palm trees at sunset, the downtown
(01:04):
LA skyline from a distance, It's all still so beautiful
to me, in spite of all of the challenges, how
expensive it is, how dirty it can be sometimes, how
irritating it can be. I've asked you to participate in
this conversation, which you can do on the iHeartRadio app
pressing that talkback button. Send me your perspective, send a
short message. We're going to play some of them throughout
(01:24):
the hour. I do want to play one that we
got about the honeymoon period.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Michael, congratulations on your honeymoon. I, however, have been here
for forty years from the East Coast, mind you, and
I'm ready to get a divorce.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
California has taken more.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Than half of my money, and I'm done. Time for
me to move on. All the best to you, well.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
All the best to you too on your next honeymoon
wherever you land. Sir, thanks for the call. I understand.
I moved here in January. You have twenty three and
had a good chunk of change that I thought was
gonna get us through until a job came along. And
it is crazy how fast money just flies out the window.
But the catalyst for that honeymoon conversation was the fact that, honestly,
(02:15):
the most attractive thing it is not even just the
opportunities that are out here. If you can get lucky
and make it, boy, can it pay off big for you.
It's the It's the weather, and I mean all of
the weather. Of course. I like the summer. It's pretty
mild where I live in the region. And then the
winter is so perfect because it does get cold, but
it's not like brutally cold the way it is back home.
(02:37):
And so in spite of it all, inspite of how
expensive it is, I'm still happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You know, it's still romantic to me. But tell me
how you feel.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Pull up the iHeartRadio app and click on that talk
back and we'll listen to you. One thing that is
certainly a challenge for all of us is the homelessness
in southern California. And I live downtown Downtown LA and
the Fanmi district wish is what a real estate agent
probably wouldn't refer to as skid row near, but as
absolutely skid row near. I can see it from my
(03:10):
window and my loft department there in the Fashion district, and.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It is a tragedy.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But I find as a newsperson who covers the organization's
charged with addressing it, whether it be a government entity
or a quasi government entity or some social services agency.
The conversation lacks a certain level of authenticity that those
of us who experience directly have because we hear about
(03:39):
the lack of affordable how we've got to build housing,
we have to offer housing.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And that's true.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Of course, there are people who face eviction because of
how expensive it is to live here. There are folks
who will end up on the streets because they can't
afford to keep their homes. That's all true. But those
are not the people that you're seeing on skid road.
Those are not the people probably who were walking on
the freeway and got run over this week three different
(04:10):
times here in La pedestrians on the freeway hit and killed.
And we don't have an honest enough conversation about the
homelessness because these are not people who missed last month's
rent that I see downtown, that you probably see on
(04:30):
Hollywood Boulevard, that you probably see in San Bernardino, that
you see all over southern California. These are folks who
are having serious mental health breakdowns. These are people addicted
to drugs, and something needs to be done right WHOA
we are doing stuff we're spending a lot of money.
(04:52):
We even just approved as voters in La County that
we would like to spend more. We're raising on ourselves
the sales tax from a quarter of percent to half
a cent. And not only that, we're not putting a
sunset clause on it. It can just go forever if we want.
But there are a lot of questions about how this money.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Is being used.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
We talked last week with the city Controller about how
the City of LA budgeted one point four billion dollars
for homelessness efforts and so far this year spent about
half of it. And now we have the Los Angeles
Housing Services Agency WISH is an organization that is funded
(05:40):
by the City of LA and the County of La.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Together.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
They are the entities that appoint the board members. An
audit is out and it's not good. And now what
you're hearing in the aftermath of this audit, county official,
we want to get out of it. We need to
have our own homeless department. A city official, we want
to get out of it. We should have our own
(06:04):
homeless department. So even these massive efforts to fix homelessness regionally,
it's just not working. And the conversation is not authentic enough.
We see it every day as residents in neighborhoods where
homeless camps exist, where our v camps exist. We see
(06:28):
them walking into the middle of traffic. We see them
walking into businesses and disrupting them. We see open air
drug use. And the money that's being spent to solve
this problem is being mismanaged. The County Auditor Controller Department
cited several concerns about lasa's management of homeless funding. They
(06:50):
failed to recoup cash advances that they gave to subcontractors,
They failed to establish repayment schedules for subcontractors. They lack
adequate record for tracking cash advances that they've given to
other agencies, and they have failed to adequately monitor the
contracts with those recipient agencies and have failed to document
(07:13):
subcontractors who received funds to see if they actually met
the terms of those contracts. Now, LASA says, they excuse me.
LASA says that, yeah, there are some problems, but we've
been working on this, right, we're working on this.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
We're going to fix this.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And they point to the fact that in the last
homeless count, for the first time in a decade, the
population living.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Outside actually dropped by a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So the policies are allegedly working, sure doesn't feel that way.
And that's a pretty scathing audit that came out that
says this agency is not handling its contracts well, is
not handling its money. And now the chair of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Lindsey Horror, has said
we probably need a county homeless department rather than relying
(08:07):
on LASA. By the way, Supervisor w Horvath is the
vice chair of the LASA board. I saw a report
with city Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who has been harping on
LASA for a long time and has also called for
the city to have its own homeless department. So this
is not getting better anytime soon. And because of the
(08:29):
regional failures, you're seeing some cities decide to take it
into their own hands, especially in the wake of that
US Supreme Court ruling that allows them to clean up
camps if they don't want them there. That's what's happening
in the Orange County city of Santa Anna the county seat,
and I'm going to be talking to the mayor next
(08:50):
she's had it with the unruly behavior of homeless people
that refuse to improve their lives. That conversation is coming
up next.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's KFI AM six forty live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News here with you until
nine o'clock. Usc UCLA noted up at three apiece at
the top of the second quarter here keep an eye
on that game over at the Rose Bowl as these
two Big ten also rans battle it out and the
(09:26):
fourteenth annual KFI Pastathon is also here. Chef Bruno's charity,
Catterina's Club, provides more than twenty five thousand meals every
week to kids in need in Southern California. And your
generosity makes it all happen. And there are three ways
that you can help. You can donate right now at
KFI AM six forty dot com slash Pastathon, or shop
(09:47):
at any Smart and Final store and donate any amount
at the checkout. Or head into any Wendy's restaurant in
Southern California and donate five bucks or more and you
get a coupon book for Wendy's goodies. You can also
join our all day live broadcast from the Anaheim White
House Beautiful Restaurant on Giving Tuesday, December three.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Coming out and see us.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
We'll be broadcasting from five o'clock in the morning until
ten o'clock at night on that Tuesday. You can donate
on site and drop off all that pasta, all that sauce.
One hundred percent of your donations will go to the
Catarinas Club. In Santa Ana, the city council has delayed
a vote on whether it wants to be a little
harsher to some of those homeless camps. They are now
(10:29):
empowered by a decision by the US Supreme Court. And
I talked with Santa Anna Mayor Valeria Mesqua. What does
it look like right now in Santa Ana, Mayor.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Well, we have them all over our city. We have
them on our bus benches, we have them on our streets,
we have them near our schools, we have them in
our neighborhoods. You know our numbers. When the last count
of May twenty twenty four was eight hundred and seventy
one unsheltered, and it's an increase from the year of
twenty twenty two. I'm going to say that there could
(11:01):
possably be more. I drive the city every single day,
and we have a serious problem like many other cities.
But because we're the county seat and we provide services
at social services, mental health, the courts, the jails, we
just have homeless people slash criminals all over our city
(11:22):
and they're disrupting our community.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
What are you hearing from members of the community about this?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
So I get emails every day and usually with pictures
attached to them of naked people walking down the street,
the naked women regularly at Memorial Park, Pictures of people
injecting needles into their arms, a bus stops, people with
their pants down, people defecating, passed out on the streets,
(11:51):
in front of children, in front of school sites. The
list goes on and on, and.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I guess with situations like that, it seems like it's
a bigger situation than housing policy. You know, a lot
of sympathy is expressed towards the whole most population, but
it doesn't seem to take into account some of these
mental health situations. So are you finding that these camps
tend to be full of people who are engaged in
(12:18):
bad behavior?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
So let me share with you with Santana has first
because I'm very proud of the workers the city staff
have done. Along with the police department. We have a
smart Team, which is a Santanna multidisciplinary response team which
works with city staff and City Net. It's a non
police response. They make contact with them, they offer them services,
offer them shelter. Remember Santa Ahnah has two shelters, one
(12:41):
city ren city owned we full wrap round services and
one by the county. So we have six hundred bags
available in our city with both of them. Then we
have what's called the Quality of Life Team. We had one,
now we have two and again multidisciplinary team as a
police department working with city Net and our city these staff.
So do we have issues, do we have clients or
(13:04):
I'll stay homeless people I'm going to say, slash criminals
on our street with mental health issues? Yes, we do
severe mental health severe, but our city Net team, our
city staff, our police officers are always offering services. What
we are dealing with now the reports that I read
or that I hear from the police department, when I
speak to officers, or when I speak to city staff,
(13:27):
or when I speak to our homeless team, is that
it's the resistant population. Now, this is the resistant population.
This isn't the population that wants to go to a program.
This isn't the population that wants to get off the street,
get a job, help with employment, things of that nature,
because the City of Santa Ana has all of that
available to them. You want a job, we can help you.
(13:49):
You want to get off the streets, we can help you.
We have met and exceeded the requirements for affordable housing.
We are always building, so I no longer believe it's
just a housing issue. This is the resistant population that
wants to get high, wants to rob people, wants to
live on the street, wants to engage in illegal activity,
(14:11):
whether it's prostitution, open drug use. You know, we've had
children assaulted at a bus stop in front of one
of our school sites. They came out of the channel.
A guy came out of our channel and he assaulted
two students, two children. So I cannot close my eyes
to this. I know. I work very closely with counsel
in Penalosa, Councilvan de Sarah, you know, city staff, police department.
(14:35):
We can't keep making excuses saying it's a housing issue,
it's a mental health issue. There is a mental health problem.
There is a lack of services for them.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Do you think that, Please go ahead to.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
Say the city of Ares we have services, we do
and they just don't want them.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Do you have any concerns, as a leader of a
city about what this Supreme Court ruling might do for
the relationships between cities If one city takes a certain action,
a different city takes a different action. Do you think
there could be some damage relationships about shuffling homeless people around?
Speaker 5 (15:15):
I would like to believe no, because I think as
mayors and as elected officials, as leaders in cities, we
should all be getting together and talking about how we
can help each other. I'm not going to point the
finger at the city or that city. Do people bring
their homeless to the City of Santana, Yes, they do.
I'm going to say that have we seen anything, Have
(15:37):
we caught anybody? No? We have not, But have I
asked community leaders and people who live in our city
please watch out for that. If you see another city
dropping them off, please let us know and we will
speak with that city. We don't want problems with another city.
We're not going to be dropping out any of our
people there. That's just not what I would ask anybody
(15:57):
to do, and I would hope that in return and
they would not do the same. You have la with
the Olympics coming with Los Angeles. Where where are their
homeless going? Right? Where are they going to go? You know,
you hear the rumors, Oh, San Francisco's getting bus passes.
I don't know that, but it's you know, been talked
about Senior Santana. We're not giving you a bus pass
(16:18):
and saying get it out again of our city. We've
been we have done such a great job in handling
people and dealing with people and helping people in a
very humane, holistic way. But it is at the point
now where with this scrabs path, it gives us ability
to say, can't sleep on our bus pedge, you can't
sleep on our street, you can't run around naked. You
need to take services. If you don't take them, here
(16:39):
are your options. The options is you go to a program.
You we could reunify you with your family. The employment
we're going to cite you could be a misdemeanor, could
be an intraction. But after a while, we're going to
keep contacting you over and over and over and over again.
You're going to get tired of seeing our police department
(17:00):
man our city need team and the services. You're just
going to get tired of it. And I either you're
going to move out of our city or you're gonna
do better with your life.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Valerie Mesquez is the mayor of Santa Anna. We'll continue
to follow that story, and it's going to get weird
around here as those cities all across Southern California start
approaching homelessness differently, and those who are more aggressive against
the camps and those who are softer are going to
see the populations probably shift. So it's something that we
need to keep an eye on, especially as these agencies
(17:31):
charged with fixing homelessness are having some challenges of their
own and the governments that monitor them have questions about
how to move forward.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
What a strange time.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
But up next, we're going to have a little bit
of a friendlier conversation and it's going to be about
the places you need to check out in Southern California
for the holidays, the biggest traditions, the smallest traditions, and
you can share your tips as well on the iHeartRadio
app through the talk back button.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeart
Radio app and Michael Monks from KFI News here cleaning
up the last half hour rithy till nine o'clock. Right now,
six to three, USC leading Ucla, that little crosstown rivalry
going on Big ten action. Who are you pulling for
at the Rose Bowl? Sorry, I just hope both teams
(18:21):
have a good time. See stop, you know, at least
pick a color. No, I'm like I said, I'm a
transplant here. I'm not a particular fan of either of
those universities. I'm gonna pick an underdog like I'm starting with,
like Long Beach State. You know, you know Division one football,
right Kentucky, And they're not good this year. They're really
not good most years, but you know this year it's
(18:41):
been particularly brutal.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
They got their butts whooped at Texas.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You know, I'm watching this game as a fan of
Los Angeles.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Good man, I love that. Now I come in here
your rejoint, so go ahead, take you back to Sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know, I mean you've your big ball of energy
that just comes in and starts producing live on demand.
That's Nick Pyliokini. You probably hear him doing some traffic reports.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
In this morning, you know here with a wake up
call with Amy King or the Bill Handle Show or
Gary Shannon or on the L and K Morning Show
on Coast one oh three point five our sister station,
which is now your holiday music station all the way
through December.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
You are my personal holiday music station right this, sir,
because you've rolled in in a Santa cap I have.
You've got a sweater on that is giving me mixed signals.
I gotta be hony is so candy cane, snowflakes and
a jackal lantern.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
I do so if you know me, My birthday is
actually Halloween. So Halloween is an incredibly important time and
so I do thirty one days of Halloween teas and
so much more. But right now it is creep it
real festive in Orange County happening at the Heritage Museum
of Orange County in Santa Ana. So big shout out
to the event that's happening right now. In fact, I
was there last night, had an incredible time with Crampis,
(19:46):
which is a big part of Christmas, and that's exactly
what we're going to talk about pretty much for the
rest of the show tonight is all the things that
you can do in and around southern California to really enjoy,
not just Thanksgiving, because I know you like one holiday
at a time.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
I do, even though we have this incredible tree.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
And also if you want to check out what's going
on here in studio with us here at KFI, you
can go to Nick paulinio'kini or this week I of
a Nick on Instagram and be able to see us
live and the beautiful tree that we have from Alda
Comb here in studio at KFI. But Creep at Real
Oc always does a Halloween event, but they also do
a mashup of when holidays collign, just like night Member
before Christmas, so that's a Colleen and Christmas, so a
(20:25):
lot of fun. They do a Crampis crump or Crampis
Clop so they have all the different crampus from Crampus
would be allegedly and if you've seen Red One which
is in theaters now, which is a great film, a
lot of Fun is actually Santa's brother and so Crampis
is what happens when you may be a naughty child
(20:45):
and cramps. There's a lot of lare around that we
won't talk about all the time you were visited by
crampis a few times.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
There might have been a bit of.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Coal in my stocking. So yes, definitely that. So that
is something that is something you could have done this weekend.
But let's jump into the things you can do. Want
to talk about this because look, yeah, I love Christmas. Yeah,
of course I like Thanksgiving first. I've believen getting through
things before you totally focus on Christmas.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Although I'm starting to get in the spear. We've got
the tree here in the studio. You see some people
putting up some lights and you can't. And Coast, of course,
of course captures captures the spirit already on the airwaves.
So the Christmas music is playing on Coast and I
love that. However, you know, I've got my fall colors
on and you look great. I do look great, look fantastic.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
This is humility is amazing. Yeah, made for Kani.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Oh no kidding, Yeah, this is a great fall cardigan.
I'm looking forward to a chicken pot pie on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
That's nice. I'm excited. No no, no, no, Turkey is not
good oh, can we just accept that?
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Wait?
Speaker 6 (21:38):
No, because I like dark meat turkey. Okay, what what
is okay? Not to derail things? Because I'm going to
be a little bit going to the weeds here. What
is a traditional Kentucky Thanksgiving delicacy or a tree?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I think something that maybe southern influence is these the
sweet potatoes with more of a candied sweet sweet and
heightened eaten taste. Okay, marshmallows are involved. You ever have that?
Speaker 5 (22:03):
No?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Yeah, I make sure that it's almost like not brulaide,
I guess you would say, but make sure that you've
got that across the top, maybe a little extra char.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I like a little bit of me too.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I think that's something that people, you know, not are
necessarily used to. But I do love that dish. Okay,
I love corn bread.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
You know that's so.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
You're definitely a guy that's in for the sides, A
big sides guy.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I can go all sides. So not necessarily the protein.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
No, because the turkey. First of all, turkey is not
a good meat. And I don't know why we can't
just accept that it doesn't taste good. Right, It's not
a good meat, and I like the idea of the feast, right,
I like the feast.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
I like the family get together.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Sure, I suggested to my family back home years ago,
why aren't we just having like a lasagna? Okay, you know,
let's just have a feast. Let's have the spirit of
the holiday. But do we need the turkey?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
All right?
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Well, we now at Monk and we know at Michael
Monk's house you can plan on a lot of sides,
chicken pot pie. We're making a homemade chi and pot
pie this year, okay, and I hope it goes well.
Last year I cooked oh, okay, croc pot It was
like a layer of every Thanksgiving thing you would want, okay,
but chicken instead of turkey chicken, and then all the
sides basically piled up on top of each other and
(23:15):
then covered in cheese.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
It's delicious.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
So it sounds like you're really into the experience, which
I think is a great transition back into things to
do for the hat to you is not going to
bring it back to you, which is great because I
want to bring it back to the listener. Let's make
sure that we can really tap into what you should
do for the holiday. Let's use me to bring it
back to the listener. I love that I'm a guy
who is still relatively new here, have had one Christmas
with my second Christmas, which is great. What do you
(23:38):
gotta do to experience Christmas Southern Color? You living in
downtown LA, this is a great opportunity for you. Alamo
Draft House, which is a film or a theater house
for they have what is called a movie party. And
I actually got to experience this. And if you are
here in the studio, in fact, if you're following on
Instagram live, come on over here.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
You can see some of the fun.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
I got to go to an ELF Christmas party for
which is an opportunity for you to experience Elf, the
movie So with Will Ferrell, the old one but so
And this is one of the opportunities of the fun
and giveaway that I talked about last hour. You can
actually win tickets to go to this party or one
of the opportunities. So that's one of those things. We're
going to give out the number here shortly for you
to be able to win tickets. But this is where
(24:23):
you actually go and experience the film with a snowball
fight and Christmas wrapping contest and food from the movie
and all the different things you might be able to
get that. You know that maple syrup on the spaghetti
and everything else for that. But so this is all
going on at Alamo Draft House. It is one of
the opportunities there. And they don't want you to just
see the movie. They want you to experience the movie.
(24:43):
So Alamo Draft House is one of those great opportunities
pull us. They have the Holiday Wonderland menu which is
attributed to Wicked right now, which is in theater. So
that's something that you can check out. I want to
focus on experiences, sure, so not just things that you
can buy for the holidays, but get out and enjoy the.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Green Well, let me comment on that because that is
at the block right that almost at the bloc, the
bloc where the Macies is if you're trying to pinpoint
where it is right there on seventh on Seventh Street,
right And I love the block at Christmas because they
decorate in such a nice sweat out. It's beautiful. The
lights are gorgeous there. It's very instagrammable. It's right downtown
(25:21):
and highly recommend that you check it out. It's one
of my favorite spots. I think it's a great spot.
And another great spot is all the way down in
my neck of the woods, which is the Queen Mary
and Long Beach, Love Long Beach. So not quite yet,
but I have a pre opportunity for you to win
to visit the Twelve Days of Christmas at the Queen Mary.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Are we having a contest? Oh, we are.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
Definitely having a contest. So twelve days of Christmas. I've
got two a mission to general mission tickets for you
to be able to experience all the amazing things that
are be happening at the Twelve Days of Christmas, which
is kicked off with Santa Claus coming to town and
docking at the Queen Mary. So not just flying into town,
but being able to experience that. So that is another
opportun me with so much happening, with a tree lighting ceremony,
(26:03):
the stacks actually of the Queen Mary will be there.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And so much more.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Okay, so we've got tickets to give away to the
Twelve Days of Christmas at the Queen Mary. So just
before we go to this break, we should give out
the number. Yes we should, indeed, do I have it?
Speaker 5 (26:13):
You do?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's eight hundred five two zero one five three four.
The number to win these tickets to the Twelve Days
of Christmas at the Queen Mary and Beautiful Long Beach, California.
Eight hundred five two zero one five three four. We're
going to continue with Nick poulio'cheinni and the Christmas wish
List coming up.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Just ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I am Michael Monks from KFI News here to close
out the hour. And you heard me talk earlier about
the honeymoon. I'm on with California, not quite two years
a resident of LA and I asked for your perspective
as well.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Let's let's play another one of the messages we got.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Weather's great, it costs a lot. I'm old enough to
remember mortgage rates eighteen to twenty one percent, so you
find a way. And by the way, I bought gas
at Sam's Club this week for three sixty seven a gallon.
Not bad.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Bye, Hey, thanks for that message. We love when you
participate in our conversation, and I think that's the right attitude, right.
It's it's expensive to live out here, but you find
what you love about it, and you just remind yourself
about it every single day, even as the cost of
gas or groceries or housing goes up. I'm also excited
to still be joined by our good buddy Nick POULIOLKINI.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
Okay, but three sixty seven a gallon? Can we talk
about that. That's pretty good. That's good, that's surprisingly good. Now, granted,
I know everyde's gonna laugh. I drive an EV so
mine's plugging it good for you. But no, three sixty
seven is not not bad. I'm rolling around in a pathfinder, okay.
And so that's a SUV.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Dude, I get.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
I had a sway to wrap four before I went
with full I plugain, so I get it's.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Like eighty ninety dollars a fill up. No, dude, I
feel nuts. No, one hundred percent. Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So we're talking Christmas anywhere, We're talking Baby Santa will
bring us some more money, and we can just.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Let's let's not do that.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
So before the break, we talked about Alamo Draft Housing
downtown la is an epic thing.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
In fact, we do.
Speaker 6 (28:17):
We'll be getting winners here for the giveaways that we
had a little while ago. But so that and then
the Queen Mary Lighting of the Stacks ceremony coming up
here in the holiday market. Also talked about creep It
Real Festive in Orange County.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But if you ever tune in here to.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
KFI later with Mo Kelly in last year I had
this week went Nick Poulaiokanne. So this is kind of
a little bit of a homage to that. And so
I want to give you some free ninety nine, which
is always you know, last call in free ninety nine.
So what that is for you who maybe you didn't
catch that, and if you've not caught it before, last
call is something that you can only do this weekend,
which I'm not going to do because obviously we're already
in the weekend, so it's a little late for that.
(28:53):
But free ninety nine is always something that just cost
your time, something that doesn't cost anything. So I want
to talk about some of the incredible light places, the
places you can go visit that have some really incredible
light areas or so you can see some Christmas lights,
because I know you said you like one holiday at
a time. We already talked about that, but there are
some places in southern California that are gonna have some
really fun lighting areas for you to check out. So
(29:14):
one of the cooler places is Christmas Tree Lane and
that is going to be in the Altadena area, so
in the San Gabriel Valley in the you know, up
in the foothills.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah, not too far from here.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
So you can head the out of the Burbank area
if you take the one thirty four over the two ten.
This is when the traffic re quarter in here comes out.
Let me yeah exactly, So that's.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
A great thing.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Their lighting ceremony is going to be taking place on
December seventh, and then those holiday lights will be all
the way into the new year.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
But you can just head out there any given night.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
The houses are decked out in incredible Christmas lights and
you'll be able to do that. Also coming up on
December fourteenth, Marina del Rey Boat Parade is going to
be coming up on December fourteenth, and so that is
being able to see a lot of these beauty what
happens on that for those of us who don't know, sure,
So Marina Delray is going to be down toward the
South Bay, not in the South Bay itself, So if
you're going to go down the four oh five and
(30:00):
you're gonna go ahead again.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Traffic will always be there to help you out.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
But Marina del Rey is for all the beautiful boats
that are decked out in Christmas lights, and so you
get a parade of boats.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
Now you can also go over to Naples in the
Long Beach area, which has all the homes and the boats.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That are decked down.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
You kill that area, we'll go and walk around and
check out the boats, or into Orange County and you
can go down to the Peninsula and the Newport area
and also see all the boat parades that happen down there.
So there's a lot of opportunities for you. But also
speaking about Newport, I want to talk to you about
Once Upon a Island, which is usually happening during the
(30:38):
rest of the year, is now once upon a Christmas.
So Once Upon an Island is a mermaid encounter that
you can have. But right now Santa and his elves
have taken over this encounter that's in Newport Beach. So
you can learn about this and so much more this
weekend with Nick on Instagram or Nick Poliochani. In fact,
if you are joining us on Instagram right now at
Nick poliocann you can see us live in studio at KFI,
(30:59):
but you.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Can actually meet with Santa, and they have these incredible
portholes portholes portals.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Portals portholes like like portals, but they're not just portholes
on a ship, but they're portals that are port holes.
There are portholes that are portoles, so both p o
r t h o l e s that are pr
p o r t aa ls that are connected directly
to the North Pole. So you're able to interact with
(31:27):
Santa and actually go to the North Pole and visit
with him and his elves.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
So that is something that you can check out. But
also some of the opportunities for you in and around
southern California to enjoy our ice skating rinks.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
The one in per Square. I did it last year.
We had a great time. That is a vibe. It
is definitely really it's very protected and secured. It is
you know, if you're worried about coming downtown, if you
feel a little scared.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
It is a nice environment.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
It's a really nice environment. You've also gotten several in
Orange County and the Inland Empire. In fact, speaking of
the Iland Empire, one of my favorite places to go
at growing I was a kid, is going all the
way up to Santa's Village, which is at SkyPark, which
is up at rim of the World, so you had
to go up the fifteen freeway and it is incredible.
So it is one of my favorite places to visit.
(32:13):
And if you're looking for something fun and unique in
a little bit special, let's here a little closer to
home in the LA area. Two things I highly recommend
that if you're looking very date night, so if you
want something just for you and the missus clause, but
I'm Santa's Secret at the Beverly Center is an incredible
speakeasy and a burlesque show that you can check out.
And also you can see Frosty's, which is a bar
that is taken over and is just if let's say,
(32:37):
if Frosty the Snowman, Santa and Rudolph had a really
good party and then maybe just had a little bit
too much party to them and just it went everywhere.
That's one of those opportunities. So there's so much going
on around to do, and we can check you out
on Instagram to find out some more. Give the listeners
that handle one more time, so you got Nick paulinio'channe,
(32:57):
which is always a bit more challenging, but most of
you are very well aware.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Google it first. I bet you'll come up.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Any matter how you spell Paul OLKINI KFI, it will
come up.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
That is find all your social chech.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
Or the easy one is this weekend with Nick and
that's always the super simple easy one on ig to
find me or yeah, just like Michael said, but to
give a real quick shout out to thank you very much.
Rick Farcas from Thousand Oaks, it looks like you are
going to be a celebrating twelve days of Christmas at
the Queen Mary right, and it looks like Manny Martinez
from Carson City you are going to be enjoying well,
(33:28):
it looks like some time at the Alamo Draft House.
So thank you both for listening to KFI AM six forty,
and we appreciate you greatly.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
We do.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Indeed, it's always nice to see you Nick, or to
see you only for the first time, but we hear
you every morning giving the traffic here on KFI and
on coast, and it is Christmas time on coast, so
you get a little bit of Nick trash and a
little bit of Saint Nick Anddee.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
That's well done.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Okay, nice to see you and we hope to a
visit with you on one of these I mean, you
are such a festive guy You've got you'll see me.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, I'm going to see you out and about at
some of these things.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
As always, we appreciate you tuning into us on this
Saturday night. Michael Monks here with KFI News. It's been
my pleasure to talk about all these issues and more.
Hope to see you back here again next Saturday. We'll
talk a little bit of news and we'll talk a
little bit of culture again. You are all helping me
on this California journey. Why have I moved here? Still
figuring it out and finding my place in Greater La.
(34:20):
So thank you for tuning in and thank you for
participating in our conversation.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
KFI AM six forty on demand.
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