May 23, 2025 • 11 mins
ICYMI: ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – A breakdown of LA Metro's $9.4 billion spending plan for 2026 with KFI Reporter Michael Monks - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app & YouTube @MrMoKelly
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I remember standing right across from me, wait smelling lost mine.
I remember the old man.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Next to me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Mommy mantra, Eric Ossardo did it again? KFI AM six forty.
Yes Later with Mo Kelly.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We're live on YouTube, iHeartRadio, app and Instagram and Michael Monks,
kfi's own Michael Monks joins me right now to give
us an update on Metro.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Michael, how are you doing this evening?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I'm better now that I've heard that little Bob Clay
leaping into this place.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It slaps, doesn't it? It slaps? It kind of does.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
All jokes aside, Metro is aus issue on this show.
We know that a budget was approved today. What do
we know about what's in the budget.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Well, let me ask you, if you don't mind me
turning the tables a little bit here. I know you've
been a pretty staunch critic of Metro, and rightfully so
in many many ways. If I told you Mo Kelly
on Later you got nine point four billion dollars with Metro?
What are your top three priorities?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Safety number one. All jokes aside safety number one. When
I say cleanliness, i'm talking about make it less unsanitary.
That is a health issue as well for everyone. And
I would say, as an extension of that, homelessness.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
No, absolutely, it's almost as if you wrote the memo yourself.
And the La Metro Board of Directors today approved a
nine point four billion dollars spending plan for the new
fiscal year, which starts on July first.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That's two percent more one.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Hundred and eighty point nine million dollars more than they
budgeted for this year. And some of the areas that
are seeing more money this time around are in fact
public safety, cleanliness, but also of course extending the lines.
I was talking to Towala before I left the building
and headed back down here to the KFI Worldwide headquarters
downtown that he was miserable sitting in traffic for a
(02:21):
couple of hours. Yes, we're all miserable sitting in traffic
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And it's like, you.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Know, if only the system were a little cleaner, felt
a little safer, and reached more parts of the city,
we'd be in business.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Oh not only would we be in business, I would
be on it and I would gladly write it because
I know the potential of the system. But if you
can't help me feel better about safety or lack thereof,
if you can't somehow guarantee me. And I know it
could be done, because I see the subway system in Washington, DC,
for example. If you can't keep it clean, free of homelessness,
(02:56):
and also somewhat safer, then I can't get on.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But I know other cities have.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Done it, far more important cities than Los Angeles, so
I know they can do it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And it seems as though in a way, these Metro
board members are getting the message, but they won't come
out and say it the way you or even somebody
who's I don't know nicer about the criticism. Perhaps I'm
not saying that you're wrong, but you know, if you
were approaching them in person and and just gave them
some honest feedback as some constructive criticism, they're getting the message,
(03:32):
but they're not saying exactly what the problems are. They
tend to talk in what I would call activists speak right.
They talk about care first, and that is I hear
the term care first at a lot of government meetings
in southern California, but especially at Metro, the La County
Board of Supervisors, the City Council in Los Angeles, And
I don't know what that means. I mean, I know
(03:54):
there's a definition for it, but I don't think the
public generally cares about that term. But that's what you
when it comes to dealing with some of these vagrants,
as we heard in the song Booping on the Metro
that starts here. First, yeah, don't just kick them off
and kick them out of the station and ban them
for life. It's make sure that they're being connected to
services and all that, and it's all very righteous. But
at the same time, how many resources, how many dollars
(04:17):
go towards addressing that issue rather than preventing it in
the first place. And so we are seeing with this
budget and increase in public safety funding while keeping in
mind that this is an agency that has hired it's
police chief now, or it's director of public safety as
they might call him, but he's a police chief of
this new internal police force that's supposed to be stood
(04:38):
up by twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
But they're starting to do that.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
But in addition to that planning, they're expanding a lot
of these additional safety measures they put in place. They're
putting up taller faregates in places, they're doing weapons detection,
They're trying to keep the bad guys off. They've also
up the money for clinic cleaning. There's going to be
about ten million dollars spent this fiscal year on sprucing
up various train stations because some of them are just
(05:02):
dank and kind of scary to go it.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And if you don't want to poop on the.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Metro, they're gonna put some bathrooms in some of these places.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It's about time on board because I remember when I
was riding the Metro, there was no place to go
to the bathroom, and it wasn't like now in I
use Washington, DC as an example because I rode the
subway there for many many years, and I go back
to DC every year, so I have a point of comparison.
Most of the stations have a bathroom, and I know
that's an added expense because you have to have it
(05:33):
clean and so forth.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
But La Metro there are no.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Bathrooms, and you're just kind of sol don't pun intended
if you have to go to the bathroom. And I'm
not surprised that you don't, that you don't have actually
more homeless people defecating and urinating all over the place.
But let me ask you this that would be a fear.
Let me ask you a very very serious question. You've
seen this budget and all the line items. Was there
(05:57):
anything in there which would give you the indication that
there is money set aside for a statue of me?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
They offered the public an opportunity over the previous months
to submit some feedback on what you'd like to see,
and I would like you to know that again on
KFI letterhead, huh I submitted a request for this very
line item and suggested that the Studio City location would
be the best spot for you, whether we're going across
to the theme park or heading down. I know you
had some wild times in Studio City and when you
(06:27):
were sowing your wild oats, but it did not make
the cut. I'm afraid to say this time, but we'll
keep bobbing. This is the thing which really really girds
my loins. As they say, with Metro, we try to
reach out to them. We try to have them on
the show so they can explain their side of their incompetency.
We try to bridge this gap of lack of communication.
(06:50):
We try to ask them about what they're doing beyond
what I think they're doing, so we can present a
more complete picture of Metro and what may be going
on behind the scenes that I don't know. I don't
profess to know everything, but I try to offer a
space where they have a voice here.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And this is the thanks that I get.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Absolutely nothing, not a statue, not a shout out, not
an interview, nothing, not even like you.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
If you can't get a callback, you're definitely not gonna
get a statue yet. But one of the things we've
talked about this mo, I mean, you rode the Metro
back in the day. I'm a user of it currently
as frequently as I can. In spite of itself. It's
it's frustrating because on paper it's mostly good. I mean,
this is a city known for its car. It's not
as good as it could be and maybe will be someday.
(07:40):
Doesn't go to as many places as we need it to.
But where it goes now, on paper, it's a decent system.
I mean, you can I'm downtown right now. It could
go to Long Beach, I can go up to a Zeus.
I can go to Santa Monica, I can go to Pasadena,
you know, and not have to worry about driving or
parking and the traffic and all of that.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It's much better than ten years ago. Michael, you are
not here in so out of the California ten years ago.
It's much better now as far as stations into places
that it offers to take you than ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
But it's gonna get better.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I mean, yeah, there's a lot of allocations in this
new budget. They are going to be continuing their expansion,
and they've budgeted for some of the work that's already
in progress the lax Metro transit system. There's going to
be a light rail plan in the San Fernando Valley
that's got a lot of money budgeted for it. I mean,
they're trying it. And we know the d line is
(08:30):
closed right now. It's the old Purple line that would
run from downtown to Korea Town. It's closed until July
because they're expanding it. I mean, within a couple of
years we're going to be able to get on that
thing and go all the way to Westwood from Union Station.
That's good stuff, it is, but you really need these
folks on the board to stop using that activist speak
(08:50):
and come out and tell people who are hesitant or
have had a bad experience on it and say they'll
never get on it again, and say we've got a
zero tolerance for the bad stuff that's been happening on
this train. Forget the violence, you know, it's the unquantifiable stuff,
the sitting next to you know, somebody who's having a breakdown,
next to somebody doing drugs, next to somebody who's just
(09:13):
generally making you scared, not because you're a racist or
because you're an elitist, but because they're making strange.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Noises and they're looking at you wrong.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And until you can have a sense of security across
this system, people are not going to get on it.
And what sucks about that is it is our best
answer right now that we have to combat this awful traffic.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I would like Metro, and I know that they're listening
because they listen to the show every single night, evidently
because they've internalized everything I've said. I would like Metro
to know that I'm the customer that they should be
speaking to. What I mean is someone who wants to
use Metro, who would benefit from using Metro. Who is
willing ostensibly to get on Metro, but because of the
(10:01):
perception of the crime, the homelessness, and the unsanitary conditions,
I won't, but I would want to, and I'm willing to.
But they're not speaking to writers like me or potential
writers like me as it were. And I think if
they can change how they present themselves to your point,
the language that they use, the priorities that they state
(10:22):
and acknowledge, the truths that we all can see plain
a day, the perception of Metro I think would be
considerably better.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
A lot of these folks need to confront their own biases.
They've been biased towards a lot of that activist language.
And until they can say that, maybe these approaches haven't worked,
even if it's just superficial, it's not. But even if
it is, even if it's just perception, their strategy has
not worked. Now the writership has rebounded almost entirely from
pre pandemic, but the track is better since then. I mean,
(10:53):
it should be growing substantially. Again, it's our best answer
right now to this not awful traffic we deal with,
and why they don't champion it as such is just
something I can't understand.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
There is a Metro stop park and ride less than
a mile from my house.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It would be in my best interest to ride Metro.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And when I was living in Harbor City, I would
take the Blue line to the Red Line and get
off the Universal City and catch the one fifty eight bus,
a one to fifty five bus from Universal City and
stop right in front of KFI and iHeartMedia Studios. If
they could ever clear that up, I would. I would
love to do it again, because I'm even closer now.
I would just take the Green line to the Red line.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I would do it. You can take it all the
way to airport now just about hello.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I'm telling you, Michael, if they get that statue up
from me, I will.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Go hard for Metro or the world mine. Michael Monks, KFI,
thanks so much, always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I remember standing right across from me, wait smelling lost mine.
I remember the old man.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Next to me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Mommy mantra, Eric Ossardo did it again? KFI AM six forty.
Yes Later with Mo Kelly.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We're live on YouTube, iHeartRadio, app and Instagram and Michael Monks,
kfi's own Michael Monks joins me right now to give
us an update on Metro.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Michael, how are you doing this evening?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I'm better now that I've heard that little Bob Clay
leaping into this place.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It slaps, doesn't it? It slaps? It kind of does.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
All jokes aside, Metro is aus issue on this show.
We know that a budget was approved today. What do
we know about what's in the budget.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Well, let me ask you, if you don't mind me
turning the tables a little bit here. I know you've
been a pretty staunch critic of Metro, and rightfully so
in many many ways. If I told you Mo Kelly
on Later you got nine point four billion dollars with Metro?
What are your top three priorities?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Safety number one. All jokes aside safety number one. When
I say cleanliness, i'm talking about make it less unsanitary.
That is a health issue as well for everyone. And
I would say, as an extension of that, homelessness.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
No, absolutely, it's almost as if you wrote the memo yourself.
And the La Metro Board of Directors today approved a
nine point four billion dollars spending plan for the new
fiscal year, which starts on July first.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That's two percent more one.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Hundred and eighty point nine million dollars more than they
budgeted for this year. And some of the areas that
are seeing more money this time around are in fact
public safety, cleanliness, but also of course extending the lines.
I was talking to Towala before I left the building
and headed back down here to the KFI Worldwide headquarters
downtown that he was miserable sitting in traffic for a
(02:21):
couple of hours. Yes, we're all miserable sitting in traffic
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And it's like, you.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Know, if only the system were a little cleaner, felt
a little safer, and reached more parts of the city,
we'd be in business.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Oh not only would we be in business, I would
be on it and I would gladly write it because
I know the potential of the system. But if you
can't help me feel better about safety or lack thereof,
if you can't somehow guarantee me. And I know it
could be done, because I see the subway system in Washington, DC,
for example. If you can't keep it clean, free of homelessness,
(02:56):
and also somewhat safer, then I can't get on.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But I know other cities have.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Done it, far more important cities than Los Angeles, so
I know they can do it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And it seems as though in a way, these Metro
board members are getting the message, but they won't come
out and say it the way you or even somebody
who's I don't know nicer about the criticism. Perhaps I'm
not saying that you're wrong, but you know, if you
were approaching them in person and and just gave them
some honest feedback as some constructive criticism, they're getting the message,
(03:32):
but they're not saying exactly what the problems are. They
tend to talk in what I would call activists speak right.
They talk about care first, and that is I hear
the term care first at a lot of government meetings
in southern California, but especially at Metro, the La County
Board of Supervisors, the City Council in Los Angeles, And
I don't know what that means. I mean, I know
(03:54):
there's a definition for it, but I don't think the
public generally cares about that term. But that's what you
when it comes to dealing with some of these vagrants,
as we heard in the song Booping on the Metro
that starts here. First, yeah, don't just kick them off
and kick them out of the station and ban them
for life. It's make sure that they're being connected to
services and all that, and it's all very righteous. But
at the same time, how many resources, how many dollars
(04:17):
go towards addressing that issue rather than preventing it in
the first place. And so we are seeing with this
budget and increase in public safety funding while keeping in
mind that this is an agency that has hired it's
police chief now, or it's director of public safety as
they might call him, but he's a police chief of
this new internal police force that's supposed to be stood
(04:38):
up by twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
But they're starting to do that.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
But in addition to that planning, they're expanding a lot
of these additional safety measures they put in place. They're
putting up taller faregates in places, they're doing weapons detection,
They're trying to keep the bad guys off. They've also
up the money for clinic cleaning. There's going to be
about ten million dollars spent this fiscal year on sprucing
up various train stations because some of them are just
(05:02):
dank and kind of scary to go it.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And if you don't want to poop on the.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Metro, they're gonna put some bathrooms in some of these places.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It's about time on board because I remember when I
was riding the Metro, there was no place to go
to the bathroom, and it wasn't like now in I
use Washington, DC as an example because I rode the
subway there for many many years, and I go back
to DC every year, so I have a point of comparison.
Most of the stations have a bathroom, and I know
that's an added expense because you have to have it
(05:33):
clean and so forth.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
But La Metro there are no.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Bathrooms, and you're just kind of sol don't pun intended
if you have to go to the bathroom. And I'm
not surprised that you don't, that you don't have actually
more homeless people defecating and urinating all over the place.
But let me ask you this that would be a fear.
Let me ask you a very very serious question. You've
seen this budget and all the line items. Was there
(05:57):
anything in there which would give you the indication that
there is money set aside for a statue of me?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
They offered the public an opportunity over the previous months
to submit some feedback on what you'd like to see,
and I would like you to know that again on
KFI letterhead, huh I submitted a request for this very
line item and suggested that the Studio City location would
be the best spot for you, whether we're going across
to the theme park or heading down. I know you
had some wild times in Studio City and when you
(06:27):
were sowing your wild oats, but it did not make
the cut. I'm afraid to say this time, but we'll
keep bobbing. This is the thing which really really girds
my loins. As they say, with Metro, we try to
reach out to them. We try to have them on
the show so they can explain their side of their incompetency.
We try to bridge this gap of lack of communication.
(06:50):
We try to ask them about what they're doing beyond
what I think they're doing, so we can present a
more complete picture of Metro and what may be going
on behind the scenes that I don't know. I don't
profess to know everything, but I try to offer a
space where they have a voice here.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And this is the thanks that I get.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Absolutely nothing, not a statue, not a shout out, not
an interview, nothing, not even like you.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
If you can't get a callback, you're definitely not gonna
get a statue yet. But one of the things we've
talked about this mo, I mean, you rode the Metro
back in the day. I'm a user of it currently
as frequently as I can. In spite of itself. It's
it's frustrating because on paper it's mostly good. I mean,
this is a city known for its car. It's not
as good as it could be and maybe will be someday.
(07:40):
Doesn't go to as many places as we need it to.
But where it goes now, on paper, it's a decent system.
I mean, you can I'm downtown right now. It could
go to Long Beach, I can go up to a Zeus.
I can go to Santa Monica, I can go to Pasadena,
you know, and not have to worry about driving or
parking and the traffic and all of that.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It's much better than ten years ago. Michael, you are
not here in so out of the California ten years ago.
It's much better now as far as stations into places
that it offers to take you than ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
But it's gonna get better.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I mean, yeah, there's a lot of allocations in this
new budget. They are going to be continuing their expansion,
and they've budgeted for some of the work that's already
in progress the lax Metro transit system. There's going to
be a light rail plan in the San Fernando Valley
that's got a lot of money budgeted for it. I mean,
they're trying it. And we know the d line is
(08:30):
closed right now. It's the old Purple line that would
run from downtown to Korea Town. It's closed until July
because they're expanding it. I mean, within a couple of
years we're going to be able to get on that
thing and go all the way to Westwood from Union Station.
That's good stuff, it is, but you really need these
folks on the board to stop using that activist speak
(08:50):
and come out and tell people who are hesitant or
have had a bad experience on it and say they'll
never get on it again, and say we've got a
zero tolerance for the bad stuff that's been happening on
this train. Forget the violence, you know, it's the unquantifiable stuff,
the sitting next to you know, somebody who's having a breakdown,
next to somebody doing drugs, next to somebody who's just
(09:13):
generally making you scared, not because you're a racist or
because you're an elitist, but because they're making strange.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Noises and they're looking at you wrong.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And until you can have a sense of security across
this system, people are not going to get on it.
And what sucks about that is it is our best
answer right now that we have to combat this awful traffic.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I would like Metro, and I know that they're listening
because they listen to the show every single night, evidently
because they've internalized everything I've said. I would like Metro
to know that I'm the customer that they should be
speaking to. What I mean is someone who wants to
use Metro, who would benefit from using Metro. Who is
willing ostensibly to get on Metro, but because of the
(10:01):
perception of the crime, the homelessness, and the unsanitary conditions,
I won't, but I would want to, and I'm willing to.
But they're not speaking to writers like me or potential
writers like me as it were. And I think if
they can change how they present themselves to your point,
the language that they use, the priorities that they state
(10:22):
and acknowledge, the truths that we all can see plain
a day, the perception of Metro I think would be
considerably better.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
A lot of these folks need to confront their own biases.
They've been biased towards a lot of that activist language.
And until they can say that, maybe these approaches haven't worked,
even if it's just superficial, it's not. But even if
it is, even if it's just perception, their strategy has
not worked. Now the writership has rebounded almost entirely from
pre pandemic, but the track is better since then. I mean,
(10:53):
it should be growing substantially. Again, it's our best answer
right now to this not awful traffic we deal with,
and why they don't champion it as such is just
something I can't understand.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
There is a Metro stop park and ride less than
a mile from my house.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It would be in my best interest to ride Metro.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And when I was living in Harbor City, I would
take the Blue line to the Red Line and get
off the Universal City and catch the one fifty eight bus,
a one to fifty five bus from Universal City and
stop right in front of KFI and iHeartMedia Studios. If
they could ever clear that up, I would. I would
love to do it again, because I'm even closer now.
I would just take the Green line to the Red line.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I would do it. You can take it all the
way to airport now just about hello.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I'm telling you, Michael, if they get that statue up
from me, I will.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Go hard for Metro or the world mine. Michael Monks, KFI,
thanks so much, always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty
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