March 21, 2025 • 23 mins
(Friday 03/21/25)
Mo Kelly is in for Bill Handel while he is out on vacation. ‘America Will Be Open’: Casey Wasserman assures IOC VISA issues won’t be a problem for the 2028 L.A Olympics. Los Angeles has a parking enforcement problem… a BIG one! Judge says Mariah Carey didn’t steal ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ from other writers. NewsNation reporter Alicia Nieves joins the show to speak on democratic town halls.
Mo Kelly is in for Bill Handel while he is out on vacation. ‘America Will Be Open’: Casey Wasserman assures IOC VISA issues won’t be a problem for the 2028 L.A Olympics. Los Angeles has a parking enforcement problem… a BIG one! Judge says Mariah Carey didn’t steal ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ from other writers. NewsNation reporter Alicia Nieves joins the show to speak on democratic town halls.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six FORTYFI AM six forty. This is the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm o Kelly. Yeah, it just did kind of say that.
I'm O Kelly and for Bill. On this fabulous Friday.
We're getting closer and closer to the weekend. You probably
know that's the Olympic March and the Olympics, Yes, are
coming here to Los Angeles again in twenty twenty eight.
I'm old enough to remember the Games of nineteen eighty four,
(00:35):
but as fate would have it, I was actually visiting
on vacation place called Clear Lake in northern California with
friends and wasn't in Los Angeles for the Games in
eighty four. God willing, I'll still be alive in twenty
twenty eight and hope to be able to enjoy the
Los Angeles Games. But it's very different circumstances, very different
(00:58):
feeling of the Games in twenty twenty eight. Presumably America
is very very different, and you can attribute some of
that to President Trump and his policies. But I think
we as people, how we relate as Americans to one another,
how we relate as Americans to the rest of the world.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's just a very different time, and there are.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Questions of how well or how prepared Los Angeles is
as a city, how well we're going to be able
to conduct these games. Those are real concerns. We know
that Mayor Bass has said that it's supposed to be
a car free Olympics, utilizing public transportation to get to
all of the venues for all of the events. I
(01:43):
don't know how feasible that is, but we know that
is a goal of this mayor. And along those lines,
there are other concerns about what will travel be like.
Will it be easy, going back to the story about
the German citizens, Will it be easy to come in
and out of the country, not just for athletes, but
(02:04):
also for tourists and people who want to see the
games from neighboring countries or anywhere from around the world.
Casey Wasserman recently has assured the IOC, the International Olympic.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Committee, that visa issues.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Won't plague the twenty twenty eight Olympics, and in an
address to the IOC in Greece, Wasserman addressed these concerns
over visas and intra requirements to the US for athletes
and delegations hoping to take part in the Games. Wasserman
is chairman of the Games Organizing Committee and assured, and
(02:38):
I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Drill down on that word.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Assured assured the one hundred and five active IOC members
that quote, irrespective of politics, today, America will be open
and accepting to all two hundred and nine countries for
the Olympics. LA is the most diverse city in the
history of humanity, and we will welcome the people from
(03:03):
around the world and give them all a great time.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Close quote.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I understand how you want to give a positive spin
on these issues. I understand why you want to say
that LA will be the most diverse and welcoming city.
But there's some things which are outside the control of
Casey Wasserman. There's some things which are outside the control
of basically anyone.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
We have some world issues going on.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
We have a relatively new president with a very very
particular and specific outlook and viewpoint when it comes to
people who are coming in the country and going out
of the country. We know that the Olympics historically has
been a place for protests, either during the Games or
(03:51):
surrounding the Games. You have the world stage there are
plenty of historical examples where people would use the Olympic
Games to have their grievances heard, their messages seen, and
somehow elevating them to a level that you can't get
any other time of the year. And since the Olympics
are every four years, the likelihood of there being some
(04:12):
level of protest, be it what's going on in the
Middle East, be it what's going on in Ukraine and Russia.
Right now, we don't know where those these situations are
going to be in two and a half years or so,
but we can assume that there will be world issues
which will be front and center in a general sense.
(04:33):
And we know, well, if there's anything we know about
Donald Trump the man and President Trump the politician, it's
this he will always change his mind as circumstances dictate.
We can point to tariffs and see his past history
on that. He may have one stance on Tuesday and
(04:53):
a different stance on Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And when it comes to those people.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Who are coming into the and those who may be
allowed to stay in the country, those who may be
protesting while in the country, or may take a stance
which is opposite that of the administration. Right now, or
may take a stance which is not necessarily as popular
with the administration. You can't imagine a scenario where Donald
(05:22):
Trump would possibly push back against that. And we may
have some people, we may have some delegations, we may
have some athletes pushed out of the country. I wouldn't
say deported, but maybe refused visa access into the country.
And that's something which is very real, very very real.
We should not somehow limit or somehow believe that Donald Trump,
(05:47):
the politician, the person, and also the president would be
any different in two and a half years than he
is right now. Wasserman put another way, cannot make this
assurance in the way that mayor Ban cannot promise to
us that we're going to have a car free Olympics.
It's more aspirational than anything. Yes, we would like to
(06:08):
believe that there will be no issues with visas or
entry requirements into the US for athletes and delegations taking
part in the twenty twenty eight Olympics. And yes, if
you're speaking to the rest of the world, if you're
speaking to the International Olympic Committee, there's only one answer
you can give. The only thing you can say is, hey,
(06:29):
it's going to be all good. We're not going to
have any problems whatsoever. Yes, we know that President Trump
has been a little bit sensitive, my word, regarding protests.
He's been very strict as it relates to visas and
people who may overstay their visas or may make public
comments in opposition to the Trump administration. Yes, we know
(06:53):
that President Trump has been very sensitive to those issues.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
But don't worry about it. Everything's going to be just fine.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
No, Casey Wasson cannot, in could faith make that argument
because nobody can predict what President Trump is going to do.
I don't know if President Trump can predict what President
Trump is going to do. This is something we're going
to have to watch day by day, week by week,
month by month.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
We have a year and a half or.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Two years before we'll have a better sense of what
the climate is going to be with people coming in
and staying in the United States. We don't know what
is going to happen in the Middle East. It could
be a completely different scenario. It could have evolved into
something much more tragic, much more widespread. We don't know
(07:43):
if Iran is going to somehow involve themselves. We don't
know what Israel is going to do with respect to Hamas.
We don't know if that ceasefire will continue where or
whether it will be resolved.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
The world will have a say.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Donald Trump, the President, will have a say, and hopefully
we'll be at a place where there is more peace
and there'll be more certainty as far as people entering
the United States. But we don't know that now, and
we can't make any promises, especially the ones that we
cannot keep. Yes, I love La, and I'm not blind
(08:23):
to all of its problems, blind to all of its warts,
blind to all the things which need to be improved.
I love La, but I'm not ignorant of the issues
in and around La. Because it's home, Home will always
be home. I was born in La, raised in La.
(08:44):
I've lived ninety eight percent of my life in LA,
with exception of the time I was in college in Washington, DC.
So La is something which is near and dear to
my heart. But there are some things, even after all
this time that I've spent here, I don't understand about La.
And this is one of the things that I think
people get wrong. Some people, not you in your car,
(09:08):
not you listening on iHeartRadio, You know better. But some
people I'm talking about other people. Some people believe that
radio hosts are always trying to be know it all.
They know everything about every subject, they opine about all
things both big and small. They know everything, or at
least they present themselves as knowing everything. Now, I will
be the first person to tell you I don't know everything.
(09:30):
I try to offer as an informed opinion as possible
about a lot of subjects, but there's some things that
I don't know, and there's some things I just don't understand.
And when I tell you that LA has a parking
enforcement problem, a huge one. When it comes down to
the amount of money that it is spending and the
(09:51):
amount of money that it is bringing in, which is
well short of the money that it's spending, I'm here
to tell you I don't understand it. I know a
little bit about math, in sort of a fifth grader
sort of way, addition, subtraction of maybe some multiplication and division,
the simple stuff. But I don't understand this. And according
(10:12):
to a recent report from independent news organization Crosstown, LA,
the city as a LA City is fighting this losing
war over parking and parking enforcement data has been analyzed,
and it shows that LA is spending tens of millions
of dollars more on parking enforcement than it is receiving
(10:35):
from parking tickets. I had no idea that parking enforcement
had such a high overhead. In the fiscal year that
just ended in June of twenty twenty four, LA gave
out two million parking tickets.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That much.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I believe the city collected about one hundred and ten
million dollars in parking fines.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I damn sure believe that. But also LA was spending.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Eighty eight million on parking enforcement expenses like salaries and equipment,
and when you add in the cost of pensions and
other obligations and liabilities, that figure jumped to more than
one hundred and seventy six million.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So let's quickly review.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
The city collected about one hundred and ten million in
parking fines, but the city was spending about one hundred
and seventy six million dollars during that same time. That
is a sixty five million dollars shortfall. How do you
come out sixty five million dollars short in parking enforcement?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I don't have a reasonable answer for you. I can
tell you about some of the contributing factors. I can
say confidently and people would understand if I told you
the COVID nineteen pandemic in a general sense made bad
matters worse because we weren't driving during the pandemic, or fewer.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
People are actually going to work.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So revenue in the fiscal year that ended in June
twenty twenty one was down thirty seven percent from the
prior year. But that's just the pandemic that was a
good four years ago. But the figures I just told
you about was for fiscal year twenty twenty four. I
don't get it. Here's something else to consider post pandemic.
(12:28):
Fewer people are commuting, Okay, that makes sense. Fewer people
are filling city centers, and fewer cars are on their
road overstaying their parking location or parking where they should.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Okay, that makes sense on some level, But.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
That only speaks to a decrease in parking revenue. I
don't understand what parking enforcement is doing, which necessitates the
exorbitant costs of salaries and also equipment. I'm thinking about
(13:06):
that subcompact car that parking enforcement people will drive around
the city.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
You know what they are.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You're looking out for them when you're parking illegally, or
you're parking you haven't fed the meter. You know, you're
looking for that car. I look at that, and I
look at the person getting out of the car, and
I got it. Okay, that is a tangible expense that
you and I can understand. We see the car, we
see the person, we see the person. We know there
is an associated salary. That makes sense. Okay, Maybe that
(13:36):
little thing they're holding in their hand which they're using
to write the ticket, that makes sense. But I can't
think of anything else. Clearly there is something else. But
I can't think of anything else which actually costs millions
and millions of dollars. They said the pensions, All right,
then what else are they using? What else are they needing?
What else are they spending millions and millions of dollars on?
(13:59):
You would think you would think that parking enforcement would
be a cash cow for the city, not a loss leader.
You wouldn't think that parking enforcement alone would lead to
sixty five million dollars in a shortfall. You would be
able to then argue that, well, if we stopped enforcement
(14:19):
of parking, we would at least cut out some of
the loss that were incurring every single year. Just stop
trying to enforce parking. We know about they have this
new system, this AI technology which will detect your car
if it's in a bus lane.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Is that some of the expense.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I don't know, but you would think that anything which
is costing you sixty five million dollars more than what
you're bringing in probably needs to be amended on the budget.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I don't know. I don't remember the last time I
received a parking ticket.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I am fortunate enough to have a garage to park
my car in and a garage at which to park
my car at work, and I understand not everyone has
that luxury. And if you've driven through Hollywood and tried
to park in Hollywood at night, there's a good chance,
and that's considered a part of the city of LA
there's a good chance that you may get a parking
ticket and or get your car Toad. I've only been
(15:17):
Toad once. Emmi King, have you ever been Toad? And
I know I ask you this only because you are
you're not an La native, so you may not have
known the racket which is LA parking.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Over the previous decades.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I have not been told, but every time I go
to Pasadena, I get a parking ticket.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Okay, Pasadena, all right, you're really good about nailing you
conor Have you.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Ever had a problem with parking and parking tickets in
and around Los Angeles?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Parking, yes, parking tickets no.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I don't see how given the amount of tickets that
they're willing to give out that we as the City
of Los Angeles would be sixty five million dollars short,
how does it get to that point? Where is that
money being spent? And I'm not one of those people
look waste, fraud and abuse. I just have a genuine question,
(16:16):
because I have a genuine lack of understanding. You would
think a reasonable person. I would like to think I'm reasonable,
but a reasonable person would question how parking enforcement costs
so damn much, given that the tickets usually are so oppressive.
(16:36):
It's not like we're talking about a twenty five or
thirty dollars ticket. You can easily see an eighty five
dollars ticket. And that's assuming you're paying it on time.
And if you're like me back in the day, I
never paid a parking ticket on time. It was just
never a priority, and then the penalties and fees rack up,
and all of a sudden, it's double that amount. How
is it we're losing money on parking enforcement? I would
(16:57):
love someone to tell me, but right now all we
know is we are losing money and there's no reasonable
explanation for it. And then when you look at the
bigger picture, how the city has a billion dollars shortfall.
Don't think I'd forgotten about that, and you realize that
something fundamentally is a miss in how the city of
(17:20):
Los Angeles is being run. This is just one example
of clearly many examples of LA not being able to
do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's a Bill Handle show.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm o Kelly and for Bill, We're live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. But there are Democratic town halls going
on all around the country. You know that the Democrats
have had a bad goal of it. As of late,
they've received the lowest approval ratings, and I would say
in the past thirty forty years at least, what is
going on inside the party? They've been mad at Chuck
(17:55):
Schumer for going along with Republicans for the Continuing Resolution,
What the hell is going on? And joining us right now.
To help us sort it out, is Alicia Mieva's News
Nation reporter, Alicia, what is going on?
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I think what we're seeing right now is the Democratic
Party trying to seize the moment with these town halls,
trying to come up with a new identity in this
new age, something they have been criticized for as of late,
and this is clearly their strategy to make that happen
these people's town halls or fight for all our fight
against all our gurchy tour. That is something that is
(18:31):
happening now with the townholes coast to coast, I mean
everywhere from Pennsylvania to Arizona, and they're mostly happening in
Republican strongholds of the DNC, saying they pick these areas
because they say vulnerable GOP house members are and this
is a quote, running scared from their constituents. You know,
the party at this point believe that it has an
opportunity to reach conservative voters who are frustrated in this
(18:53):
moment on how the Trump administration is carrying out its agenda,
a certain policies that are hitting their wallets when they
voted for him to do the opposite, you know, there
are points of things like Elon Musk's chains off of bureaucracy.
We won't forget that moment at seapac a last month,
and really everything that he's done with Doge to slash
government waste but at the same time layoff tens of
thousands of people. So you're seeing Dems like Tim Wall's
(19:16):
AOC Bernie Sanders, hoping that their message at these town
hall you know, turns Republican voters that anger they're having
right now potentially into action aka votes coming to the
Dems come this next election cycle, which is about a
year and a half away from now, but certainly something
on the minds of Democrats right now.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I think objectively speaking, we can agree that there's a
problem not only with the Democrats in elections vis a
v with against Republicans, but also internally in the Democratic Party.
What is it with the democratics in Democrats internally in
which they are unable to find a cohesive strategy in
(19:57):
which to fight Republicans.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
It seems Yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Know, I think you've been up a great point that
actually reflected in these town halls, right you know, these
hot town halls haven't been just rallies for Democrats. They've
actually been Democratic voters saying the exact same thing, saying
the old guard, if you will, clearly hasn't worked, right.
It's part of the reason why Trump is now in
office and they lost the election, you know, last year,
and so one of the things again we're hearing in
(20:22):
these town halls is people asking for them to find
a new identity. That may be AOC, that may be
Bernie Sanders, or that may be someone completely new and different.
You know, we're even hearing in these town halls. You know,
Democrats are having to deal with calls for Senator Schumer
to kind of step down to no longer be the
leader of the party, especially after he, you know, backed
Trump's government funding bill to a shutdown. They feel like
(20:45):
they need a party that's willing to fight with the Republicans,
who were clearly up to the fight, right. They have
kind of had this revolution, if you will, over the
last two months sixty days that Trump has been in office,
and they're wanting the Democrats to match that. It will
yet to be seen if that's actually what ends up
happening here. But again these town halls are Democrats saying
they're up for the challenge and people saying you need
(21:07):
to be because we're going to vote based on that.
If you actually are willing to stand up to the
Republican Party.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Before I let you go, I have a philosophical question
and hopefully you can help me out with it. I
remember after Mitt Romney lost against Barack Obama in twenty sixteen,
that the Republican Party was lost in the wilderness, not
unlike what the Democrats are right now.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
A lot can happen in two years and four years.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Has there been any thought to, hey, Democrats, just stop panicking.
We can't lose or win any elections until twenty twenty six.
Let's be sure that we take our time and get
the right strategy, the right message, and we can be
back on top again.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
You know, I think from my vantage point, unfortunately that's
not the case. I think even when you point to
Mitt Romney, you point to Barack Obama, I think Republicans
did well in play the long game. And that's something
that Democrats are struggling with because while they can't win
you know, the White House until you know, mid terms,
at least until twenty twenty six, and certainly the White House,
you know two years after that they're under this immense
(22:13):
amount of pressure to do something. Now, that's part of
what we're hearing at the town hall. So on one hand,
you want them to come up with a long vision,
or they certainly want to come with a long vision,
but they have to have some short term success, whether
it be just ideologically, and I think that's what these
town halls are. They're, you know, an image of what
could come in twenty twenty six, what could come in
twenty twenty eight. But the long game, they have not
(22:36):
telegraphed any of that, and from my vantage point, you know,
I haven't seen it. So that's something that obviously is
concerning for Democratic voters.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Alisa and Naevia's News Nation reporter. Thank you so much
for checking in with us.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Of course, you've been listening to the Bill Handles Show.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Catch my show one day through Friday, six am to
nine am, and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio
app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six FORTYFI AM six forty. This is the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm o Kelly. Yeah, it just did kind of say that.
I'm O Kelly and for Bill. On this fabulous Friday.
We're getting closer and closer to the weekend. You probably
know that's the Olympic March and the Olympics, Yes, are
coming here to Los Angeles again in twenty twenty eight.
I'm old enough to remember the Games of nineteen eighty four,
(00:35):
but as fate would have it, I was actually visiting
on vacation place called Clear Lake in northern California with
friends and wasn't in Los Angeles for the Games in
eighty four. God willing, I'll still be alive in twenty
twenty eight and hope to be able to enjoy the
Los Angeles Games. But it's very different circumstances, very different
(00:58):
feeling of the Games in twenty twenty eight. Presumably America
is very very different, and you can attribute some of
that to President Trump and his policies. But I think
we as people, how we relate as Americans to one another,
how we relate as Americans to the rest of the world.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's just a very different time, and there are.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Questions of how well or how prepared Los Angeles is
as a city, how well we're going to be able
to conduct these games. Those are real concerns. We know
that Mayor Bass has said that it's supposed to be
a car free Olympics, utilizing public transportation to get to
all of the venues for all of the events. I
(01:43):
don't know how feasible that is, but we know that
is a goal of this mayor. And along those lines,
there are other concerns about what will travel be like.
Will it be easy, going back to the story about
the German citizens, Will it be easy to come in
and out of the country, not just for athletes, but
(02:04):
also for tourists and people who want to see the
games from neighboring countries or anywhere from around the world.
Casey Wasserman recently has assured the IOC, the International Olympic.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Committee, that visa issues.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Won't plague the twenty twenty eight Olympics, and in an
address to the IOC in Greece, Wasserman addressed these concerns
over visas and intra requirements to the US for athletes
and delegations hoping to take part in the Games. Wasserman
is chairman of the Games Organizing Committee and assured, and
(02:38):
I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Drill down on that word.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Assured assured the one hundred and five active IOC members
that quote, irrespective of politics, today, America will be open
and accepting to all two hundred and nine countries for
the Olympics. LA is the most diverse city in the
history of humanity, and we will welcome the people from
(03:03):
around the world and give them all a great time.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Close quote.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I understand how you want to give a positive spin
on these issues. I understand why you want to say
that LA will be the most diverse and welcoming city.
But there's some things which are outside the control of
Casey Wasserman. There's some things which are outside the control
of basically anyone.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
We have some world issues going on.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
We have a relatively new president with a very very
particular and specific outlook and viewpoint when it comes to
people who are coming in the country and going out
of the country. We know that the Olympics historically has
been a place for protests, either during the Games or
(03:51):
surrounding the Games. You have the world stage there are
plenty of historical examples where people would use the Olympic
Games to have their grievances heard, their messages seen, and
somehow elevating them to a level that you can't get
any other time of the year. And since the Olympics
are every four years, the likelihood of there being some
(04:12):
level of protest, be it what's going on in the
Middle East, be it what's going on in Ukraine and Russia.
Right now, we don't know where those these situations are
going to be in two and a half years or so,
but we can assume that there will be world issues
which will be front and center in a general sense.
(04:33):
And we know, well, if there's anything we know about
Donald Trump the man and President Trump the politician, it's
this he will always change his mind as circumstances dictate.
We can point to tariffs and see his past history
on that. He may have one stance on Tuesday and
(04:53):
a different stance on Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And when it comes to those people.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Who are coming into the and those who may be
allowed to stay in the country, those who may be
protesting while in the country, or may take a stance
which is opposite that of the administration. Right now, or
may take a stance which is not necessarily as popular
with the administration. You can't imagine a scenario where Donald
(05:22):
Trump would possibly push back against that. And we may
have some people, we may have some delegations, we may
have some athletes pushed out of the country. I wouldn't
say deported, but maybe refused visa access into the country.
And that's something which is very real, very very real.
We should not somehow limit or somehow believe that Donald Trump,
(05:47):
the politician, the person, and also the president would be
any different in two and a half years than he
is right now. Wasserman put another way, cannot make this
assurance in the way that mayor Ban cannot promise to
us that we're going to have a car free Olympics.
It's more aspirational than anything. Yes, we would like to
(06:08):
believe that there will be no issues with visas or
entry requirements into the US for athletes and delegations taking
part in the twenty twenty eight Olympics. And yes, if
you're speaking to the rest of the world, if you're
speaking to the International Olympic Committee, there's only one answer
you can give. The only thing you can say is, hey,
(06:29):
it's going to be all good. We're not going to
have any problems whatsoever. Yes, we know that President Trump
has been a little bit sensitive, my word, regarding protests.
He's been very strict as it relates to visas and
people who may overstay their visas or may make public
comments in opposition to the Trump administration. Yes, we know
(06:53):
that President Trump has been very sensitive to those issues.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
But don't worry about it. Everything's going to be just fine.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
No, Casey Wasson cannot, in could faith make that argument
because nobody can predict what President Trump is going to do.
I don't know if President Trump can predict what President
Trump is going to do. This is something we're going
to have to watch day by day, week by week,
month by month.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
We have a year and a half or.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Two years before we'll have a better sense of what
the climate is going to be with people coming in
and staying in the United States. We don't know what
is going to happen in the Middle East. It could
be a completely different scenario. It could have evolved into
something much more tragic, much more widespread. We don't know
(07:43):
if Iran is going to somehow involve themselves. We don't
know what Israel is going to do with respect to Hamas.
We don't know if that ceasefire will continue where or
whether it will be resolved.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
The world will have a say.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Donald Trump, the President, will have a say, and hopefully
we'll be at a place where there is more peace
and there'll be more certainty as far as people entering
the United States. But we don't know that now, and
we can't make any promises, especially the ones that we
cannot keep. Yes, I love La, and I'm not blind
(08:23):
to all of its problems, blind to all of its warts,
blind to all the things which need to be improved.
I love La, but I'm not ignorant of the issues
in and around La. Because it's home, Home will always
be home. I was born in La, raised in La.
(08:44):
I've lived ninety eight percent of my life in LA,
with exception of the time I was in college in Washington, DC.
So La is something which is near and dear to
my heart. But there are some things, even after all
this time that I've spent here, I don't understand about La.
And this is one of the things that I think
people get wrong. Some people, not you in your car,
(09:08):
not you listening on iHeartRadio, You know better. But some
people I'm talking about other people. Some people believe that
radio hosts are always trying to be know it all.
They know everything about every subject, they opine about all
things both big and small. They know everything, or at
least they present themselves as knowing everything. Now, I will
be the first person to tell you I don't know everything.
(09:30):
I try to offer as an informed opinion as possible
about a lot of subjects, but there's some things that
I don't know, and there's some things I just don't understand.
And when I tell you that LA has a parking
enforcement problem, a huge one. When it comes down to
the amount of money that it is spending and the
(09:51):
amount of money that it is bringing in, which is
well short of the money that it's spending, I'm here
to tell you I don't understand it. I know a
little bit about math, in sort of a fifth grader
sort of way, addition, subtraction of maybe some multiplication and division,
the simple stuff. But I don't understand this. And according
(10:12):
to a recent report from independent news organization Crosstown, LA,
the city as a LA City is fighting this losing
war over parking and parking enforcement data has been analyzed,
and it shows that LA is spending tens of millions
of dollars more on parking enforcement than it is receiving
(10:35):
from parking tickets. I had no idea that parking enforcement
had such a high overhead. In the fiscal year that
just ended in June of twenty twenty four, LA gave
out two million parking tickets.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That much.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I believe the city collected about one hundred and ten
million dollars in parking fines.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I damn sure believe that. But also LA was spending.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Eighty eight million on parking enforcement expenses like salaries and equipment,
and when you add in the cost of pensions and
other obligations and liabilities, that figure jumped to more than
one hundred and seventy six million.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So let's quickly review.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
The city collected about one hundred and ten million in
parking fines, but the city was spending about one hundred
and seventy six million dollars during that same time. That
is a sixty five million dollars shortfall. How do you
come out sixty five million dollars short in parking enforcement?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I don't have a reasonable answer for you. I can
tell you about some of the contributing factors. I can
say confidently and people would understand if I told you
the COVID nineteen pandemic in a general sense made bad
matters worse because we weren't driving during the pandemic, or fewer.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
People are actually going to work.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So revenue in the fiscal year that ended in June
twenty twenty one was down thirty seven percent from the
prior year. But that's just the pandemic that was a
good four years ago. But the figures I just told
you about was for fiscal year twenty twenty four. I
don't get it. Here's something else to consider post pandemic.
(12:28):
Fewer people are commuting, Okay, that makes sense. Fewer people
are filling city centers, and fewer cars are on their
road overstaying their parking location or parking where they should.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Okay, that makes sense on some level, But.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
That only speaks to a decrease in parking revenue. I
don't understand what parking enforcement is doing, which necessitates the
exorbitant costs of salaries and also equipment. I'm thinking about
(13:06):
that subcompact car that parking enforcement people will drive around
the city.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
You know what they are.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You're looking out for them when you're parking illegally, or
you're parking you haven't fed the meter. You know, you're
looking for that car. I look at that, and I
look at the person getting out of the car, and
I got it. Okay, that is a tangible expense that
you and I can understand. We see the car, we
see the person, we see the person. We know there
is an associated salary. That makes sense. Okay, Maybe that
(13:36):
little thing they're holding in their hand which they're using
to write the ticket, that makes sense. But I can't
think of anything else. Clearly there is something else. But
I can't think of anything else which actually costs millions
and millions of dollars. They said the pensions, All right,
then what else are they using? What else are they needing?
What else are they spending millions and millions of dollars on?
(13:59):
You would think you would think that parking enforcement would
be a cash cow for the city, not a loss leader.
You wouldn't think that parking enforcement alone would lead to
sixty five million dollars in a shortfall. You would be
able to then argue that, well, if we stopped enforcement
(14:19):
of parking, we would at least cut out some of
the loss that were incurring every single year. Just stop
trying to enforce parking. We know about they have this
new system, this AI technology which will detect your car
if it's in a bus lane.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Is that some of the expense.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I don't know, but you would think that anything which
is costing you sixty five million dollars more than what
you're bringing in probably needs to be amended on the budget.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I don't know. I don't remember the last time I
received a parking ticket.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I am fortunate enough to have a garage to park
my car in and a garage at which to park
my car at work, and I understand not everyone has
that luxury. And if you've driven through Hollywood and tried
to park in Hollywood at night, there's a good chance,
and that's considered a part of the city of LA
there's a good chance that you may get a parking
ticket and or get your car Toad. I've only been
(15:17):
Toad once. Emmi King, have you ever been Toad? And
I know I ask you this only because you are
you're not an La native, so you may not have
known the racket which is LA parking.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Over the previous decades.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I have not been told, but every time I go
to Pasadena, I get a parking ticket.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Okay, Pasadena, all right, you're really good about nailing you
conor Have you.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Ever had a problem with parking and parking tickets in
and around Los Angeles?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Parking, yes, parking tickets no.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I don't see how given the amount of tickets that
they're willing to give out that we as the City
of Los Angeles would be sixty five million dollars short,
how does it get to that point? Where is that
money being spent? And I'm not one of those people
look waste, fraud and abuse. I just have a genuine question,
(16:16):
because I have a genuine lack of understanding. You would
think a reasonable person. I would like to think I'm reasonable,
but a reasonable person would question how parking enforcement costs
so damn much, given that the tickets usually are so oppressive.
(16:36):
It's not like we're talking about a twenty five or
thirty dollars ticket. You can easily see an eighty five
dollars ticket. And that's assuming you're paying it on time.
And if you're like me back in the day, I
never paid a parking ticket on time. It was just
never a priority, and then the penalties and fees rack up,
and all of a sudden, it's double that amount. How
is it we're losing money on parking enforcement? I would
(16:57):
love someone to tell me, but right now all we
know is we are losing money and there's no reasonable
explanation for it. And then when you look at the
bigger picture, how the city has a billion dollars shortfall.
Don't think I'd forgotten about that, and you realize that
something fundamentally is a miss in how the city of
(17:20):
Los Angeles is being run. This is just one example
of clearly many examples of LA not being able to
do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's a Bill Handle show.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm o Kelly and for Bill, We're live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. But there are Democratic town halls going
on all around the country. You know that the Democrats
have had a bad goal of it. As of late,
they've received the lowest approval ratings, and I would say
in the past thirty forty years at least, what is
going on inside the party? They've been mad at Chuck
(17:55):
Schumer for going along with Republicans for the Continuing Resolution,
What the hell is going on? And joining us right now.
To help us sort it out, is Alicia Mieva's News
Nation reporter, Alicia, what is going on?
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I think what we're seeing right now is the Democratic
Party trying to seize the moment with these town halls,
trying to come up with a new identity in this
new age, something they have been criticized for as of late,
and this is clearly their strategy to make that happen
these people's town halls or fight for all our fight
against all our gurchy tour. That is something that is
(18:31):
happening now with the townholes coast to coast, I mean
everywhere from Pennsylvania to Arizona, and they're mostly happening in
Republican strongholds of the DNC, saying they pick these areas
because they say vulnerable GOP house members are and this
is a quote, running scared from their constituents. You know,
the party at this point believe that it has an
opportunity to reach conservative voters who are frustrated in this
(18:53):
moment on how the Trump administration is carrying out its agenda,
a certain policies that are hitting their wallets when they
voted for him to do the opposite, you know, there
are points of things like Elon Musk's chains off of bureaucracy.
We won't forget that moment at seapac a last month,
and really everything that he's done with Doge to slash
government waste but at the same time layoff tens of
thousands of people. So you're seeing Dems like Tim Wall's
(19:16):
AOC Bernie Sanders, hoping that their message at these town
hall you know, turns Republican voters that anger they're having
right now potentially into action aka votes coming to the
Dems come this next election cycle, which is about a
year and a half away from now, but certainly something
on the minds of Democrats right now.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I think objectively speaking, we can agree that there's a
problem not only with the Democrats in elections vis a
v with against Republicans, but also internally in the Democratic Party.
What is it with the democratics in Democrats internally in
which they are unable to find a cohesive strategy in
(19:57):
which to fight Republicans.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
It seems Yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Know, I think you've been up a great point that
actually reflected in these town halls, right you know, these
hot town halls haven't been just rallies for Democrats. They've
actually been Democratic voters saying the exact same thing, saying
the old guard, if you will, clearly hasn't worked, right.
It's part of the reason why Trump is now in
office and they lost the election, you know, last year,
and so one of the things again we're hearing in
(20:22):
these town halls is people asking for them to find
a new identity. That may be AOC, that may be
Bernie Sanders, or that may be someone completely new and different.
You know, we're even hearing in these town halls. You know,
Democrats are having to deal with calls for Senator Schumer
to kind of step down to no longer be the
leader of the party, especially after he, you know, backed
Trump's government funding bill to a shutdown. They feel like
(20:45):
they need a party that's willing to fight with the Republicans,
who were clearly up to the fight, right. They have
kind of had this revolution, if you will, over the
last two months sixty days that Trump has been in office,
and they're wanting the Democrats to match that. It will
yet to be seen if that's actually what ends up
happening here. But again these town halls are Democrats saying
they're up for the challenge and people saying you need
(21:07):
to be because we're going to vote based on that.
If you actually are willing to stand up to the
Republican Party.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Before I let you go, I have a philosophical question
and hopefully you can help me out with it. I
remember after Mitt Romney lost against Barack Obama in twenty sixteen,
that the Republican Party was lost in the wilderness, not
unlike what the Democrats are right now.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
A lot can happen in two years and four years.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Has there been any thought to, hey, Democrats, just stop panicking.
We can't lose or win any elections until twenty twenty six.
Let's be sure that we take our time and get
the right strategy, the right message, and we can be
back on top again.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
You know, I think from my vantage point, unfortunately that's
not the case. I think even when you point to
Mitt Romney, you point to Barack Obama, I think Republicans
did well in play the long game. And that's something
that Democrats are struggling with because while they can't win
you know, the White House until you know, mid terms,
at least until twenty twenty six, and certainly the White House,
you know two years after that they're under this immense
(22:13):
amount of pressure to do something. Now, that's part of
what we're hearing at the town hall. So on one hand,
you want them to come up with a long vision,
or they certainly want to come with a long vision,
but they have to have some short term success, whether
it be just ideologically, and I think that's what these
town halls are. They're, you know, an image of what
could come in twenty twenty six, what could come in
twenty twenty eight. But the long game, they have not
(22:36):
telegraphed any of that, and from my vantage point, you know,
I haven't seen it. So that's something that obviously is
concerning for Democratic voters.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Alisa and Naevia's News Nation reporter. Thank you so much
for checking in with us.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Of course, you've been listening to the Bill Handles Show.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Catch my show one day through Friday, six am to
nine am, and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio
app
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