Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to Season to fifty nine,
Speaker 1: Episode two of Dirt Dailies Like Guys Day production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. This is a podcast where we take
Speaker 1: a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. It's Tuesday, October eighteen,
Speaker 1: National International Legging Day. So it's not just for the
Speaker 1: people in this could you rock with leggings, it's your day.
Speaker 1: It's National Chocolate Cupcake Day, National No Beard Day, and
Speaker 1: National Pharmacy Technician Day. Shout out to the people working
Speaker 1: in the bad out to the pharmacy text. Was that
Speaker 1: a no beard Day? Yeah? I don't know if that
Speaker 1: means just shaving it off. It just says, yeah, just
Speaker 1: being clean shaven. You know, it's probably again it's about
Speaker 1: way to razors, you know, about time we got some
Speaker 1: recognition out here or with or like me who cannot
Speaker 1: grow a beer. So I'm like, yeah, every day is
Speaker 1: no beard Day. Uh well, anyways, my name's Jack O'Brien.
Speaker 1: A K. Guess who's back back again? Stalin's ghost Tell
Speaker 1: a friend this curtsy at Christian Gucci Man talking about
Speaker 1: who was that? Who said Stalin truly? Mike Cernovich weird,
Speaker 1: Mike Sernovitch coming back, coming with a strange attempt at
Speaker 1: poetic license. I am thrilled to be joined as always
Speaker 1: by my co host, Mr Miles Yes, it's Miles Gray,
Speaker 1: straight from the Mile High City, but keeping his title
Speaker 1: of the Lord of Lancashim Hideo NoHo, North Hollywood was
Speaker 1: very own. Thank you so much. In the building, in
Speaker 1: the building, well, we are thrilled to be joined in
Speaker 1: the building, ish virtually in the virtual building of the
Speaker 1: internet zoom protocol by an urban planner, former executive director
Speaker 1: of Time's Up Entertainment and currently the city council member
Speaker 1: for l A's fourth District. Welcome back to the show,
Speaker 1: Nittia Roma, Welcome, Welcome, Thank you. That was such a
Speaker 1: great That's probably the most enthusiastic perception I've ever gotten. Hey,
Speaker 1: we go off here, very happy to be here than
Speaker 1: the last time you were here. You were running and
Speaker 1: in what the l A Times calls a political earthquake,
Speaker 1: you won. I'm sure you've probably heard that by now,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you won. Congratulations, Thank you. It's a big deal.
Speaker 1: It's a big deal. Yeah. So now you're just wielding
Speaker 1: power for the past couple of years. How's that going?
Speaker 1: Anything new going? On the city Council. I haven't had
Speaker 1: I haven't had the most stressful week of my entire
Speaker 1: tenure here so far. Yeah, just getting stayed and you
Speaker 1: kept your appointment to appear on our second rate podcast.
Speaker 1: We're truly grateful. Well, I disagree with you that it's
Speaker 1: a second rate podcast, and I'm very delighted to be
Speaker 1: here because it's third rate. Thank you. All right, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to know you a little bit better in
Speaker 1: a moment. We had to go on by the way
Speaker 1: recently and when his underrated was Little Nikki. So just
Speaker 1: so you know what the bar of the Sandler movie,
Speaker 1: The Sandler Movie at Little Nikki was like, I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: it's just like my favorite movie. I can I can
Speaker 1: watch it repeatedly. He said it was his favorite movie.
Speaker 1: I think he said it was his favorite or like
Speaker 1: one of his favorite movies of all time, and like
Speaker 1: didn't really he wasn't like, you know, because of this
Speaker 1: or because of that. He was just like, I just
Speaker 1: really love that movie. It was it was kind of awesome. Um.
Speaker 1: I did endorse him, and now I'm thinking end Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta favorite the latter day. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was interesting because of that. I was like, looking
Speaker 1: at where it falls. It was like right before Punch
Speaker 1: Drunk Love, very interesting and after water Boy and he
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I'm gonna go full funny
Speaker 1: Boys for all two hours of this movie. Anyways, that's
Speaker 1: not what we're talking to you about. We are gonna
Speaker 1: ask the question of just like how to be a
Speaker 1: progressive in modern America, like the just generally you know,
Speaker 1: we struggle as a podcast, we talked about how American
Speaker 1: society seems to have an immune system that is allergic
Speaker 1: to anything having to do with socialism or progressive social policies,
Speaker 1: and that is addicted to profit. And so just as
Speaker 1: someone who's been in there for a couple of years
Speaker 1: now and like almost a couple of years, almost yea,
Speaker 1: almost a couple of years coming up on a couple
Speaker 1: of years, like just kind of getting your stories from
Speaker 1: from from what it looks like from the inside. We're
Speaker 1: gonna specifically talk about, you know, the un housed crisis
Speaker 1: in l A, white supremacy, which has been a subject
Speaker 1: that has come up a lot with regards to l
Speaker 1: A City Council recently. Crime all of that. We might
Speaker 1: even get into rainbow fentanyl the latest Halloween freak out
Speaker 1: on a national scale, which just spoiler alert is is
Speaker 1: a bullshit media panic. But the d A guy said,
Speaker 1: I know it's rainbow. They're gonna give it to your kids.
Speaker 1: Drug dealers love giving fitmal away for free. Anyways, before
Speaker 1: we get to any of that, and if you know,
Speaker 1: we do like to ask our guests, what is something
Speaker 1: from your search history, my recent search history? Yeah, just
Speaker 1: what whatever you're willing to divulge well before the grimness
Speaker 1: of this last week, and I want to avoid that
Speaker 1: week's very dark search history. But I was most recently
Speaker 1: googling and surprised to find that The First Wives Club,
Speaker 1: which is an old movie, whether it was actually about
Speaker 1: President's wives as I thought it was, And it turns
Speaker 1: out it's not. It's about the first first wife that
Speaker 1: was divorced from the welcare and how those first wives
Speaker 1: got together and exactly, which is like a way more
Speaker 1: fun movie premise. And I was delighted to find that
Speaker 1: this was the case because it kept being promoted to
Speaker 1: me because I've been watching a lot of like I
Speaker 1: can't watch anything new, it's too much to process. I've
Speaker 1: been watching like when Harry met Sally legally blonde, clueless,
Speaker 1: and this You've Got Me All this kept getting promoted
Speaker 1: to me, and I was like, why would I want
Speaker 1: to watch this movie? And then it turns out, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's perfect. Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan start
Speaker 1: robbing banks together, Like I set it off type scenario
Speaker 1: Tipper Gore can't get in the crew there. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: kind of like first like First Wives that like that version.
Speaker 1: I didn't watch that film, No, I just remember the
Speaker 1: posters because they were all wearing white like they were
Speaker 1: their outfits. There was like there. The marketing was like
Speaker 1: here we are because Goldie Hawon and Diane Keaton and
Speaker 1: Bed Midler, right, I think are the three? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And but the thing is like if they're all wearing white,
Speaker 1: doesn't that make you think that it's about I don't know, Suffraget.
Speaker 1: We went two different It was either suff or or
Speaker 1: Well that's what like I was trying to picture like
Speaker 1: a club made up of first you know, the first women,
Speaker 1: first ladies of the from US history, and like I
Speaker 1: feel like to get any sort of critical mask, you
Speaker 1: would have to go to the afterlife. So that's where
Speaker 1: my mind ghost, right, well, look, it turns out we
Speaker 1: were all wrong, right, and it's it's about women exacting
Speaker 1: revenge for being divorced from beyond the grave. What is
Speaker 1: something you think is overrated? So I you know, well,
Speaker 1: I guess we might talk about this later. But my
Speaker 1: district in city Council is pretty large. It now stretches
Speaker 1: from northern Silver Lake to Roseda, and so I spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time driving and I'm always late, and
Speaker 1: I feel like, here's the thing I've learned. I do
Speaker 1: my makeup in the car. So I think doing makeup
Speaker 1: at home, Wow, you're and you're able to be able
Speaker 1: to drive and do your makeup. I do it at stoplights. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not dangerous about it, okay, because I remember, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember sometimes like seeing like when when I was
Speaker 1: in the midst of like my long commutes, when I
Speaker 1: was like working the West Side and I lived in
Speaker 1: the valley, going over the four oh five creeping, there
Speaker 1: are always people doing their makeup, and I was always
Speaker 1: like man with the stopping go. I always admired people
Speaker 1: using like an eyeliner pencils so close to their eyeball
Speaker 1: while like hit and stop and go traffic. I was
Speaker 1: like there has to be some stat of like people
Speaker 1: like traffic. But so yeah, and I will say, like
Speaker 1: eyeliners the one thing I save for when I pull
Speaker 1: into the park at the destination. But yeah, my foundation,
Speaker 1: my blush. It's kind but yeah, but yeah, I think
Speaker 1: about all the times you did your makeup in the
Speaker 1: car jack. Yeah, you know, just like all the all
Speaker 1: the stories. The other time I hear like these commuting
Speaker 1: hacks is from like people in medical school, like and
Speaker 1: it's just like ways to squeeze things in on your commute,
Speaker 1: like to multitask, and like when my wife was going
Speaker 1: through medical school, like their trick was like on the
Speaker 1: commune when you're at a stoplight, you like, now you
Speaker 1: put the car in park and nap until until the
Speaker 1: car behind you honks, and then that's what wakes you
Speaker 1: up from your nap, because that's just how it's It's
Speaker 1: truly crazy that that's how we've decided to train doctors.
Speaker 1: Is like we're gonna we're gonna make you sick, both
Speaker 1: like phizz really and spiritually, and that's the only way
Speaker 1: you get to take care of people. Right, that is
Speaker 1: so much darker than Yeah, I've definitely had the same
Speaker 1: thought that, like, why I'm going to start seeing people
Speaker 1: driving by in the other direction with eye patches because
Speaker 1: of how frequently I see people doing makeup while they're driving.
Speaker 1: But you know, apparently it can be pulled off with
Speaker 1: a plum. Yeah, what is What's something that you think
Speaker 1: is underrated? Matthew? So, I have been really enjoying Bosh
Speaker 1: the TV show, Okay, and I actually I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's underrated. I think the people who find it
Speaker 1: really like it. Yeah, the people of l A really
Speaker 1: like it. Like I feel like it's a there's a
Speaker 1: strong appreciation and that and people I know who are
Speaker 1: like really into l A as a city love Bosh because, right,
Speaker 1: isn't it? I have not dove in yet, but it does.
Speaker 1: Like Teacher, it's like shot on on location throughout Los Angeles, right, well,
Speaker 1: it is shot on location throughout Los Angeles. I will
Speaker 1: also say that shocking, shockingly high percentage of the murders
Speaker 1: happened in and around Council District four, which is not
Speaker 1: true actually for crime stats, right, but putting an op
Speaker 1: on you, Okay, like just look at Bosch, look happen
Speaker 1: people are dying at the Hollywood Bowl people are dying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so another murder at the Hollywood Bowl for people who
Speaker 1: aren't from l A. That's like the premier concert venue.
Speaker 1: It's like that the Greek and then obviously like Staples
Speaker 1: or the Forum for ant tour events. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: Bowl is like our you know, any video game that
Speaker 1: depicts l A, you gotta you have to build the
Speaker 1: Hollywood Bowl when you're rendering, for sure. But it's also
Speaker 1: weird the idea of someone getting murdered there, like I
Speaker 1: think this, I think believe that this individual was murdered
Speaker 1: in the pedestrian tunnel on the way to going underneath Highland.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, but anyway, but there's
Speaker 1: like a lot a lot of council district forearm references.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and do you when you're watching that, are
Speaker 1: you like or you're just kind of you're you're able
Speaker 1: to buy into the to the fantasy of like do
Speaker 1: you do you do you? Are you ever? Like I'm
Speaker 1: kind of bosh. I can't I could turn my job
Speaker 1: as a city council member into like going around and
Speaker 1: murder she wroting, so some y it's a totally boys
Speaker 1: escapist escapist yeah, for sure, I think if it was
Speaker 1: like too close to what we were seeing in l A,
Speaker 1: I think I would have more trouble with it as
Speaker 1: a as a relaxation right right. And the other actually,
Speaker 1: can I do a serious one that I find underrated,
Speaker 1: which is there's a documentary series called Philly d A
Speaker 1: about Larry Krasner. Mm hmm, and that's it's one of
Speaker 1: the best things I've watched in the past like two years,
Speaker 1: and it's it's amazing, and it was so real and
Speaker 1: so potent as a piece of filmmaking. I had to
Speaker 1: pause it numerous times, you know, just because of what's happened.
Speaker 1: You know, it was like too much for me to process,
Speaker 1: especially given all that you know, all that's happening in
Speaker 1: America right now. I just was like, oh my gosh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think very aligned with some of the questions
Speaker 1: that you were asking Jack earlier about politics and the
Speaker 1: future of America and progressive Yeah. They that feels like
Speaker 1: the it's like the low hanging fruit for a lot
Speaker 1: of people to go after trying to explain away certain
Speaker 1: hills to be like, well, it's the progressive d A's
Speaker 1: actually right, and we've seen that here in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: with the attempted recalls, So Georgia gone, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's really relevant for a lot of what's happening,
Speaker 1: But it also talks about his office and management, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a complicated, complicated I think that
Speaker 1: he's dealing with over there right right. And and given
Speaker 1: the recall of San Francisco's d A, like, there's just
Speaker 1: a lot happening right now. Yeah, the San Francisco's d
Speaker 1: A was I don't really regularly consume the Wall Street
Speaker 1: Journal or Fox News, but in talking to conservative relatives,
Speaker 1: I did not realize how much of a national figure
Speaker 1: like they had made San Francisco's progressive d A and
Speaker 1: like that just the idea. They were like, that's he's
Speaker 1: lost control of the city. Like, I feel like the
Speaker 1: rest of the country was so all over this narrative
Speaker 1: that progressive is in California. We're like, you know, causing
Speaker 1: an apocalypse, right And now when you talk to people
Speaker 1: from outside of l A, They're like, how do you
Speaker 1: how do you live there? It's crazy. I live in
Speaker 1: a version where I'm actually I know my neighbors and stuff,
Speaker 1: not as freaky as the people with an agenda want
Speaker 1: to make it seem but yeah, there are issues that
Speaker 1: definitely have to solve like any Yeah, and I don't
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think you ever, you don't ever,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think you get anywhere talking about
Speaker 1: crime and people's fear and sense of safety in in
Speaker 1: in a city by dismissing it. I think you talk
Speaker 1: about what are real solutions to addressing it. But anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the fearmongering is fearmongering is also very real. And I
Speaker 1: think there was they there was a little bit of
Speaker 1: just creating a bogeyman around these right, because you know,
Speaker 1: they put in a new d A and the same
Speaker 1: things are happening before. Yeah, yeah, in San Francisco, of course.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back to dig into how to be progressive, How I
Speaker 1: am be progressive. They've broken my brain. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to even deal in the modern United States. So
Speaker 1: I want to I want to hear how you're thinking
Speaker 1: about that in one moment and we're back. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: something that we just kind of keep coming up against,
Speaker 1: whether it be with regards to you know, crime statistics
Speaker 1: during the pandemic that we've already kind of made reference
Speaker 1: to and that a lot of that got blamed on
Speaker 1: progressive d a s, a lot of it got blamed
Speaker 1: on the Black Lives Matter movement, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and and now the statistics are are coming coming out,
Speaker 1: and you know, people are actually looking at things and
Speaker 1: seeing that crime went up everywhere and in the United States,
Speaker 1: whether it was a progressive d A or a judge
Speaker 1: with a noose in like the woods somewhere, like, the
Speaker 1: crime went up all of those places. And in urban
Speaker 1: areas and in rural areas, Yeah, that's the other you know,
Speaker 1: like I think actually homicide spiked in rural areas even
Speaker 1: more than they did in urban areas. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's starting it's starting to seem like a lot of
Speaker 1: these informal and formal you know, social networks that we
Speaker 1: all have with going places, seeing people these like third
Speaker 1: places that are in our home where you know, once
Speaker 1: those went away and people just had more time and
Speaker 1: we're shut up in their home. And also everybody started
Speaker 1: buying more guns, like you know, those things were all
Speaker 1: contributing factors. And also a bunch of crime statistics disappeared
Speaker 1: for for the year, more so that they weren't like,
Speaker 1: you know, jurisdictions in like Florida and Pennsylvania and California
Speaker 1: which are massively represent like a lot of these statistics
Speaker 1: weren't using like the new standardized way of reporting that
Speaker 1: the FBI was asking for as they put together there
Speaker 1: annual statistics. And that's whether they're like we're even now
Speaker 1: if you want to make this sort of claim, like
Speaker 1: you're dealing with incomplete data at best. But I didn't
Speaker 1: even know that. Yeah, so so just like so we
Speaker 1: have this narrative, like we we say, like they are
Speaker 1: these policies and these social you know, things that we
Speaker 1: should be investing in that went away during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and it turns out they're enormously popular or and enormously
Speaker 1: important and without them, like things get really bad really quickly.
Speaker 1: Very straightforward story to tell people about, you know, progressive politics.
Speaker 1: And instead the version that comes back to us in
Speaker 1: the mainstream media is that it's either progressive d a
Speaker 1: s or's that like the police were defunded even though
Speaker 1: they were still super duper funded. Like it's it's just
Speaker 1: like that story in particular, where there is a truth
Speaker 1: that is pretty straightforward that can be told and answer
Speaker 1: all these questions, and that just like doesn't get told.
Speaker 1: Is one of the examples where I just feel like America,
Speaker 1: like the body of America, rejects anything having to do
Speaker 1: with socialism and is addicted to this idea of violence
Speaker 1: and anything that can drive a profit, like militarization of
Speaker 1: the police can. So I don't know, like just just
Speaker 1: sort of a vague like how you comment, Yeah, your comment? Please? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I I what I can speak to is
Speaker 1: what I've been dealing with here in Los Angeles, and
Speaker 1: I think we had this very heated conversation shin about
Speaker 1: police and the role of policing in in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and a call for you know, real changes to how
Speaker 1: we respond to or or or utilize policing here here
Speaker 1: in this city. And then, you know, I think in
Speaker 1: the in in after the election in in November, slowly
Speaker 1: there started you know, becoming a backlash around really talking
Speaker 1: about increases in the number of homicides, increases in crime
Speaker 1: across America in Los Angeles, and what is very true
Speaker 1: is that those numbers have gone up, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: and that they've gone up regardless of jurisdiction. They've gone up.
Speaker 1: In urban and urban and rural areas. They've gone up
Speaker 1: across cities, regardless of their policies, regardless of whether they
Speaker 1: have progressive or non progressive days. I mean, there has
Speaker 1: been a rise in homicides across the entire country, and
Speaker 1: that's that's the reality of the moment that we're living in.
Speaker 1: And so in response to that increase, there has been
Speaker 1: a push locally and nationally for more police, more police
Speaker 1: on our streets, more money to policing. And so you
Speaker 1: had this kind of you know, whiplash moment where after
Speaker 1: this intense conversation around the role of police and how
Speaker 1: you deploy them in cities, you had this very intense
Speaker 1: backlash that that came forward. And for me, what's been
Speaker 1: really I think as someone who's trying to navigate these
Speaker 1: conversations and legislate in these conversations, is that here in
Speaker 1: l A, we couldn't hire more police even if we
Speaker 1: wanted to. The l A p D is facing such
Speaker 1: intense staffing shortages and they're not unique among city departments
Speaker 1: right so across the entire city, as in the private sector,
Speaker 1: there are intense staffing shortages facing the city and in
Speaker 1: fact l A p D has been allocated for a
Speaker 1: certain number of positions in the budget and hasn't even
Speaker 1: been able to fill them because of attrition and because
Speaker 1: they're not able to hire up fast enough. So retirements
Speaker 1: have been so many that that they haven't been able
Speaker 1: to hire up to match that retirement numbers. And so
Speaker 1: to me, the question like when I go out and
Speaker 1: talk to constituents and constituents are telling me, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel anxious. I'm seeing the news, I'm seeing all
Speaker 1: these I really want to talk to them about. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're in this moment. The solutions that have been proposed
Speaker 1: for decades, which is, let's add to the police, let's
Speaker 1: add to the police, let's add to the police in
Speaker 1: response to your fears. That's not that's not possible right
Speaker 1: now because of this moment. So how do we think
Speaker 1: about what is really going to make you feel safer?
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of those things that were
Speaker 1: discussed in exactly what we need to be investing in
Speaker 1: right now. It's you know, how do we respond to
Speaker 1: homelessness without police involvement. I hear from my the senior
Speaker 1: lead officers that are kind of in charge of various
Speaker 1: parts of our district that forty two six of their
Speaker 1: time spent responding to calls about homelessness that are not
Speaker 1: related to violent crime or assault. It's just there's an
Speaker 1: encampment here, you know, And so they're going out and
Speaker 1: doing that work. But are they the right people to
Speaker 1: be responding to that? Is there a better way that
Speaker 1: we can be responding to calls about homelessness that you
Speaker 1: know that really tries to get those individuals who are
Speaker 1: on the streets on their path into a home. If
Speaker 1: you're talking about traffic response, you know, what are we
Speaker 1: doing in terms of monitoring traffic safety when when you
Speaker 1: have a collision, does armed police need to come out
Speaker 1: and respond there or can we send someone else? Or
Speaker 1: is there ways of doing traffic enforcement that doesn't that
Speaker 1: doesn't involve armed police as much because there are d
Speaker 1: O T traffic officers Department of Transportation traffic officers as well.
Speaker 1: But how do we think about that in ways that
Speaker 1: really remove police from areas where they have been before?
Speaker 1: Mental health crisis response, you know, are there are there
Speaker 1: many many situations where we're sending armed police out when
Speaker 1: we own and so I think for me, it's like,
Speaker 1: let's have a conversation about safety. You know, let's have
Speaker 1: this conversation about what it really means to have a
Speaker 1: response to safety, that that that really responds to the
Speaker 1: needs that we have in Los Angeles and responds to
Speaker 1: the conditions that we're facing here, that doesn't just go
Speaker 1: to this. You know, ultimately, if you're hearing from politicians that, oh,
Speaker 1: you're not feeling safe, we're going to add police, Like
Speaker 1: that's at this point, I can tell you that that's
Speaker 1: a lie in l A, right, because it's just you're saying,
Speaker 1: functionally not possible. It's not possible, because it's just not possible.
Speaker 1: We can't go to that well anymore. So, so in
Speaker 1: order to have a conversation about what what responds to
Speaker 1: the very real challenges that we're facing in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: right now need to be I think we just have
Speaker 1: to have a very different conversation and and I think
Speaker 1: we have to be real with constituents about that. We
Speaker 1: have to be real with Angelina's about that. And I
Speaker 1: think I would imagine that many other cities across America
Speaker 1: are facing these same challenges and curious because you know,
Speaker 1: like with with police budgets, I know you voted to
Speaker 1: increase them. And I know there's probably more nuance around
Speaker 1: it than some people. I feel like some people just say,
Speaker 1: I can't believe she voted to increase police budgets just
Speaker 1: full stop, because if they felt, maybe on then the campaign,
Speaker 1: this is something you're fully invested in, but for one
Speaker 1: reason or another that there are things like caps on
Speaker 1: how many people can be you know, hired, or the
Speaker 1: ability to hire more people, or that certain raises are
Speaker 1: built in based on like union agreements. How like you
Speaker 1: like earlier you were saying, it's like you're now you're
Speaker 1: in this position where you're trying to navigate that and
Speaker 1: legislate based from that position. How do you sort of
Speaker 1: what do you put forward to people who may have
Speaker 1: been like really looking at the idea of police like
Speaker 1: increasing police budgets bad? So therefore that I can't I'm
Speaker 1: not going to think much more about it, because, like
Speaker 1: you said, had a lot of people just very invested
Speaker 1: in this one or at least one dimension of altering
Speaker 1: how we respond to certain you know, emergencies in our city. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the first, you know, I think I really want
Speaker 1: to say that, like I receive a lot of criticism
Speaker 1: about my work I also receive a lot of support,
Speaker 1: but I receive a lot of criticism. And I'm I'm
Speaker 1: very like if people are disappointed, like I just want
Speaker 1: to say, this is not me saying they don't have
Speaker 1: any right to be disappointed or you know whatever, Like
Speaker 1: I understand, and I'm I'm out here trying to navigate
Speaker 1: this in the way that one person out of fifteen
Speaker 1: can and and really deliver the best results for the
Speaker 1: people of my district at this moment. And during the
Speaker 1: budget process, I put forward some you know, long pieces
Speaker 1: of writing about why I you know, what my relationship
Speaker 1: to the budget process was. But the one thing I
Speaker 1: do want to say about the Los Angeles budget when
Speaker 1: we that budget vote is not an updown vote on
Speaker 1: the police budget alone. It's an omnibus budget, right, So
Speaker 1: it's like all these things and and there's a huge
Speaker 1: amount of negotiation that happens as we move through it,
Speaker 1: where you're saying, Okay, how much money am I going
Speaker 1: to get for the Planning Department? How much money am
Speaker 1: I going to get for building affordable housing in Los Angeles?
Speaker 1: How much money am I going to get for for
Speaker 1: active transportation? Like you know, I I'm really a big
Speaker 1: proponent of bike lanes and traffic safety measures, and I
Speaker 1: actually can't get those implemented in my district because we
Speaker 1: don't have staff at the Department of Transportation to design
Speaker 1: those measures on our roads. And one of the big
Speaker 1: things I fought for and that budget was more people
Speaker 1: to work on active transportation measures. And I got that. Um,
Speaker 1: I got that as part of the budget process. And yeah,
Speaker 1: like the police funding was a big part of the budget.
Speaker 1: It has been historically a big part of the budget.
Speaker 1: And there were raises baked into it that increased the
Speaker 1: numbers of how much money we were committing to the
Speaker 1: police force. And looking at that and looking at what
Speaker 1: I was able to get out of the budget, you know,
Speaker 1: I I move forward with it because I think when
Speaker 1: you're negotiating on it, you're saying, Okay, I'll support this
Speaker 1: if we can do this, this and this right, And
Speaker 1: I get like, you know, it's like any like you know,
Speaker 1: they're omnibus bills and the federal level that you know,
Speaker 1: certain certain items are like poison pills for some legislators
Speaker 1: and some aren't for you to see like a version
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles where we can legislate in that way,
Speaker 1: and we are saying like without you know, all of
Speaker 1: like the to address all of these needs that we
Speaker 1: have while really being able to like have a laser
Speaker 1: focus on, you know, realizing well, they're the direct increase
Speaker 1: in police budgets doesn't correlate to our an increase in
Speaker 1: our safety. How are we able to sort of streamline
Speaker 1: the process because I'm sure there's many there's so many
Speaker 1: voices that come into that process that I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: it becomes chaotic, Like what are you know? Like, I
Speaker 1: think that's why a lot of people when we look
Speaker 1: at how we can change things, we always see how
Speaker 1: the established process is basically the biggest hurdle into like
Speaker 1: meaningful change. Yeah, I'm curious, like what's the version that
Speaker 1: we need to be thinking of that allows us to
Speaker 1: have these conversations where we can't say, you know what,
Speaker 1: we have enough votes on the city council, we know
Speaker 1: it like having more invested in social services and people
Speaker 1: who are trained in responding to crises like this, that
Speaker 1: we can do that in a very easy way. But
Speaker 1: I get that there's so much entrenched power. But I'm curious,
Speaker 1: as someone who wrestling that, what's you know, like, what's
Speaker 1: the vision of that for the future. So I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that people have to understand about
Speaker 1: the way that the l A City Council is set up,
Speaker 1: and this may not be relevant for your national audience,
Speaker 1: but is that a lot of the work of determining
Speaker 1: what projects move forward and what programs move forward, it
Speaker 1: is done through committees. And I don't sit on the
Speaker 1: Public Safety Committee, but I think the people who sit
Speaker 1: on the Public Safety Committee have will have a lot
Speaker 1: of power over what happens in terms of our response
Speaker 1: to public safety issues in l A. So the key
Speaker 1: things are the council president assigns people to various committees.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you've been following the news, you
Speaker 1: know who was our council president till very recently, Yes Martinez,
Speaker 1: Yes Neri Martinez. And so she assigned me to the
Speaker 1: Housing Committee, to the homeless, some poverty committee, to These
Speaker 1: are all committees that I think are really important, but
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't sit on the Public Safety Committee,
Speaker 1: and I think that committee is really responsible for trying
Speaker 1: to bring up and ensure that departments are following through
Speaker 1: on alternative responses to public safety. Right and without that
Speaker 1: committee's leadership and its chair really pushing forward on those
Speaker 1: it's going to be hard to see progress. So the
Speaker 1: reality is a lot of the power on those issues
Speaker 1: sits within that committee. The committee chair determines which motions
Speaker 1: get hurt by the Committee and moved to the full Council.
Speaker 1: And we don't have right now a coherent alternative response
Speaker 1: system in place in Los Angeles, right So that's that's
Speaker 1: the other reality of the moment that we're facing right
Speaker 1: now is that there's all these great ideas. There is
Speaker 1: a pilot program in Hollywood and Venice called the Circle program,
Speaker 1: which is supposed to take some of the you know,
Speaker 1: nine one one calls that are coming in and moving
Speaker 1: them to unarmed response. There is a mobile van that's
Speaker 1: supposed to be housed at fire stations and go out
Speaker 1: from there. So there's all these different pilot programs, but
Speaker 1: there's no coherence around thinking about what are these programs doing,
Speaker 1: what are they actually changing as we move forward, are
Speaker 1: they effective, what's the most effective, How can we really
Speaker 1: invest and expanding them beyond the pilot phase. Actually put
Speaker 1: forward a motion earlier this year which just is making
Speaker 1: its way through the Committee and the council asking for
Speaker 1: exactly this, you know, And I think this is in
Speaker 1: addition to thinking about police budgets and police presence, I
Speaker 1: think we also need to be thinking about how do
Speaker 1: we actually fund staff and increase the capacity of these
Speaker 1: alternative systems to actually respond to issues in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: And that's to me, that's like the thing that we
Speaker 1: we do need to be focusing on in a in
Speaker 1: a very real sense, Like you know, getting back to
Speaker 1: your first question or the introduction that you have, Jack,
Speaker 1: is like, how do you how do you exist as
Speaker 1: a progressive in this space? I think one of the
Speaker 1: things that we need to be doing as a movement,
Speaker 1: as a progressive movement, as a big tent progressive movement,
Speaker 1: is to be talking about what we want to see,
Speaker 1: not just what we don't want to see, and I
Speaker 1: think being really clear and focused about what those goals
Speaker 1: are and then going out there and fighting for those
Speaker 1: things wherever they show up on council or supervisorial or
Speaker 1: county agendas. You know, that that's a kind of work
Speaker 1: that I think we need to be doing as a
Speaker 1: movement in order to really move forward, because it's not
Speaker 1: just about saying we don't want this. It's about building
Speaker 1: the world that we want to see, right, what do
Speaker 1: we replace it with? I heard you talk about like
Speaker 1: seeing somebody I think they were in your district having
Speaker 1: a mental health crisis, and but they weren't a danger
Speaker 1: to themselves or other people, And so you tried to
Speaker 1: navigate the process of, you know, like finding a solution,
Speaker 1: finding nobody away, to call somebody who could come help.
Speaker 1: That wasn't a police officer pointing a gun at that person.
Speaker 1: And I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it. By
Speaker 1: the way, so as you were, you were a city
Speaker 1: council member, I'm a sitting city council person and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm watching a person have a crisis on the streets,
Speaker 1: and I call the Department of Mental Health, which is
Speaker 1: controlled by l A County. So mental health response in
Speaker 1: l A is not controlled by the city, it's controlled
Speaker 1: by the county. I called l A County and not
Speaker 1: only did they not come, they never even called me back.
Speaker 1: And the reason is because despite the fact that we
Speaker 1: have an enormous homelessness crisis, despite the fact that some
Speaker 1: although not all, certainly not all people who are experiencing
Speaker 1: homelessness have mental health vulnerabilities, some of them do. And
Speaker 1: the reality is that we need street based mental health
Speaker 1: outreach and street based response to mental health issues. Right
Speaker 1: And despite the reality of that that we've been grappling
Speaker 1: with in Los Angeles for many, many years now, the
Speaker 1: county has almost no mental health outreach teams that a
Speaker 1: rapid response like this and has no capacity to respond
Speaker 1: to calls for help in that way. And so for
Speaker 1: the entirety of the San Fernando Valley, for example, that
Speaker 1: enormous area, there is one mental health outreach team that
Speaker 1: the Department of Mental Health funds. Yeah, part my English,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's that's bullshit, you know. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you were saying that, Like when you talked to somebody,
Speaker 1: they were like, we're still like dealing with yesterday's calls,
Speaker 1: and it's like, that's that doesn't really it doesn't help me.
Speaker 1: It doesn't help us at this moment. And so like
Speaker 1: that and that, and you know, when I ran for office,
Speaker 1: one of the things I really talked about was saying,
Speaker 1: I want to have a system of responding to homelessness
Speaker 1: in my district which tries really to move it into
Speaker 1: the hands of trained professionals, Is there is there like
Speaker 1: a tension right because we all know it's like we
Speaker 1: don't need the cops to be responding, you know, and
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, we'd love to not be responding
Speaker 1: to this, but is there they say that is there?
Speaker 1: I know, but they say that right, and then but
Speaker 1: they're like, we need more money, but we need more
Speaker 1: that like what's how do how does where does the
Speaker 1: rubber meet the road? In trying to get the stakeholders
Speaker 1: to understand it's like, because we talk all the time
Speaker 1: as observers of just the news and looking at you know,
Speaker 1: crime statistics or how crimes even reported like breathlessly by
Speaker 1: the l A Times or fucking Los Angeles magazine, that
Speaker 1: absurd publication, Like at what point are we able to
Speaker 1: really get this message through? It's like you know that
Speaker 1: we always talk about it's like if there if there
Speaker 1: was a correlation between how much we spent in crime,
Speaker 1: there should be negative crime, you know. Like so that's
Speaker 1: what I'm curious to see how those conversations play out,
Speaker 1: like because obviously you have a living entity as like
Speaker 1: the police department, who's they're saying like, well, we need
Speaker 1: this money and or do they look at giving away
Speaker 1: some of this responsibility as making them more vulnerable to
Speaker 1: like saying, well, then what do y'all do you know?
Speaker 1: Like is I'm I'm curious to know how they're rationalized
Speaker 1: or the debates that you hear when there are people
Speaker 1: who advocate for this is why it needs to be
Speaker 1: this way, This is why it needs to be this
Speaker 1: way when you know logic or basic analysis would say like,
Speaker 1: it seems like there's a myriad of other ways of
Speaker 1: things we can try because we've been doing it this
Speaker 1: way forever and results are the same. I mean, we
Speaker 1: even heard Joe Biden and a speech be like we
Speaker 1: don't need to defund the police, we need to extra
Speaker 1: super duper fund the police because they because they do
Speaker 1: because there are mental health counselors and like giving listing
Speaker 1: all these things that they're bad at that they shouldn't do,
Speaker 1: that they don't want to do. So it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, I mean I think for me,
Speaker 1: like I'm always trying to think about this and how
Speaker 1: you talk to constituents about building support for a better
Speaker 1: way of doing things, a more logical way of doing things.
Speaker 1: And I think one thing that I would say is
Speaker 1: that I think often when you're talking to constituents, a
Speaker 1: big complaint that you hear is, you know, I had
Speaker 1: an incident of violent crime, or I witnessed an incident
Speaker 1: of crime, or had something happened to me and the
Speaker 1: police didn't come fast enough, you know. And so when
Speaker 1: I hear that, I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: that's a moment when you can say, Okay, look you
Speaker 1: had armed violence happening. That may be a space where
Speaker 1: armed police are appropriate responders, right, but for everything else,
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that we are taking that
Speaker 1: off of l A p d S plate. And I
Speaker 1: think in that in that conversation and so that they
Speaker 1: can respond more quickly to your instance of armed violence
Speaker 1: where you didn't feel like you were supported or you
Speaker 1: felt safe. And so that that's like for me in
Speaker 1: terms of trying to think about building a case for
Speaker 1: that better world. That's that's not just an argument that
Speaker 1: I think has a lot of power. I think it's
Speaker 1: it's it's something that I think instinctively people understand, you know.
Speaker 1: I think we don't move forward as a city unless
Speaker 1: we're able to really have conversations about safety and about
Speaker 1: these issues. In ways that don't undermine people's fears. And
Speaker 1: I said that before. I just think that that's like
Speaker 1: an important way, a part of how we move forward
Speaker 1: in building that new future, even if you know, you
Speaker 1: may not think that those fears are legitimate or based
Speaker 1: in the statistics, or I just feel like in order
Speaker 1: to have a conversation that's really fruitful, I think we
Speaker 1: all have to respect each other's kind of where you're
Speaker 1: coming from. And I think we can make real progress,
Speaker 1: real measurable progress on doing exactly those kinds of things
Speaker 1: and taking armed police out of mental health crisis response,
Speaker 1: on taking police out of you know, your everyday homelessness response,
Speaker 1: and you're going to have real widespread support for that,
Speaker 1: those changes that can transform people's lives. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: let's just be clear that if we're talking about vulnerability
Speaker 1: to police violence and that something that you care about,
Speaker 1: making sure that police are not your first line of
Speaker 1: response to calls about homelessness is really important because I think,
Speaker 1: you know, last in the last count a third of
Speaker 1: all victims of police violence were homeless in l A.
Speaker 1: You know, so, how can we have how can we
Speaker 1: make concrete progress on these issues? How do we do
Speaker 1: that right, because you're not saying I gotta go to
Speaker 1: the like sixty five year old lifelong Sherman Oaks resident
Speaker 1: and be like, well, you know, these crime statistics are
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, and like sort of do this kind
Speaker 1: of you have to sort of meet them where they're at,
Speaker 1: which is like, well, what do you You don't feel
Speaker 1: safe because of X, Y and Z. Well, this is
Speaker 1: actually how we solve it. Because I feel like this
Speaker 1: l A is really are I think most cities are
Speaker 1: at this place where people have either the really aggressive,
Speaker 1: violent solution to a problem, and then there's a group
Speaker 1: of people advocating for something that like acknowledges the people's
Speaker 1: like someone's humanity as a solution to it. So like,
Speaker 1: for example, like again in l A, there's so much
Speaker 1: talk of like there's such a weaponization of the unhoused people,
Speaker 1: like the unhoused community here for political points. I have
Speaker 1: neighbors acquaintances around the city that seem to not be
Speaker 1: interested in solving the issues that accelerate the growth of
Speaker 1: the unhoused community, like they don't really care about it.
Speaker 1: For like they don't understand, they don't understand stuff, like
Speaker 1: they just see homelessness and they go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what are they fucking doing over there in city Hall?
Speaker 1: And that ainematic ends, and there's like a really specific
Speaker 1: type of Angelino right votes Democrat, hangs all the right
Speaker 1: signs outside of their home, but when it comes to
Speaker 1: talking about the un housed, their only idea to contribute
Speaker 1: is some version of get rid of them, or I
Speaker 1: don't want to see them, or they are dangerous. And
Speaker 1: right now there's like this Crusoe supporter who's like going
Speaker 1: around l a videotaping people that are living on like
Speaker 1: on the street, and just like shaming them and narrating
Speaker 1: to the camera this is why we need to vote
Speaker 1: for Caruso. And the comments are like an intellectual war
Speaker 1: zone like on these videos. But you know, I'm curious
Speaker 1: for someone who's been advocating for trying to solve this
Speaker 1: in a way that makes sense and isn't just will
Speaker 1: ship them out somewhere or like just being more brutal
Speaker 1: and say hey, you either take treatment or you live
Speaker 1: on the streets again or whatever. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people have all these really messed up mantras. I'm
Speaker 1: curious if you've seen a shift in these kinds of
Speaker 1: attitudes or what how do you even connect somebody who's
Speaker 1: like seemingly being like I understand all these other problems,
Speaker 1: but I just can't quite cross the intellectual rubicon into
Speaker 1: seeing an unhoused person as a human being that is
Speaker 1: unfortunate and is worthy of some kind of help, rather
Speaker 1: than saying this is a nuisance, because it's either nuisance
Speaker 1: or someone in need of help is helping see them.
Speaker 1: And I think we can never abandon the base, you know,
Speaker 1: I think my entire campaign, my entire time in office,
Speaker 1: has been built around the idea that you if you
Speaker 1: center on house people in your response to homelessness, and
Speaker 1: if you center their dignity, that that we actually have.
Speaker 1: You know that that for sst of all, that that
Speaker 1: is that is a moral imperative, you know, no matter
Speaker 1: what right is. That's just step one. But the but
Speaker 1: the incredible thing is that if you do it that way,
Speaker 1: if you respond to homelessness in that way, that you
Speaker 1: actually address homelessness more effectively. Then you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: there's two dances that we put and house people through
Speaker 1: here in Los Angeles. One is a sidewalk shuffle where
Speaker 1: you break tents on one sidewalk, people move across the street,
Speaker 1: and then they move back, and then there's the there's
Speaker 1: the movement from sidewalk to jail and back to the sidewalk,
Speaker 1: and neither of these actually addresses homelessness, neither of them.
Speaker 1: And if so, if you want a long term solution
Speaker 1: to homelessness, if you want to see our way out
Speaker 1: of this crisis, there's no way through it that doesn't
Speaker 1: center the dignity of those people who are living on
Speaker 1: the streets and ensuring that your response is tailored to
Speaker 1: those individuals needs. And I think, I think one of
Speaker 1: the challenges that that I feel like I pushed back
Speaker 1: on and that I always have conversations with residents across
Speaker 1: the district about is like I have no I believe
Speaker 1: that homelessness is not a good thing for l A.
Speaker 1: It's not. It's worse for the people who are experiencing homelessness,
Speaker 1: but it's bad for our entire city. Like I want.
Speaker 1: I'm here because I want to end homelessness, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think just just making sure, like I think
Speaker 1: that people understand that the goal of this work is
Speaker 1: not too keep people on the street, but rather too
Speaker 1: much more effectively help them navigate their way off the streets.
Speaker 1: That alone is a game changer and having those conversations
Speaker 1: because I do think there is a bogeyman there. You know,
Speaker 1: am I saying that word right? Is it boogeyman or
Speaker 1: boge I've always heard boogeyman, but bogeyman also adds like
Speaker 1: a I think it's appropriate for like our top gun,
Speaker 1: because is like the bad plane that's going to come
Speaker 1: shoot you. I like mis pronounced words all the time,
Speaker 1: and so I just realized as I was like, this
Speaker 1: is the second time I'm musingly mis pronouncing it again.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but like to me, it's really just there
Speaker 1: is this, I think persistent feeling that if you are
Speaker 1: fighting back against the sidewalk shuffle or the jail to
Speaker 1: streets circle, that what you're actually advocating for is for
Speaker 1: people to remain on the streets, And in fact, it's
Speaker 1: exactly the opposite. It's exactly the opposite. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: talked about structural kind of problems with with regards to
Speaker 1: addressing homelessness that I feel like they then trickled down
Speaker 1: to the like individual level, like with the sidewalk shuffle
Speaker 1: district by district there when you entered office, there was
Speaker 1: not there still isn't. There isn't was okay, So each
Speaker 1: district is responsible for addressing homelessness within their district, which
Speaker 1: leads to makes it very easy for your answer to
Speaker 1: be moved them to a different district, right, yes, exactly
Speaker 1: so and and and the incoherence of this is mind boggling.
Speaker 1: So is that something like how how are I guess
Speaker 1: i'd I'd love to shift too. Things that you are
Speaker 1: seeing work and things that are giving you hope for
Speaker 1: like addressing this as you're coming up on like the
Speaker 1: two year mark, like what what what are you seeing work?
Speaker 1: And actually gain traction? Well a lot of that change
Speaker 1: this last week, right you know, Yeah, I mean, let's
Speaker 1: let's talk about this last week and just like what
Speaker 1: it was like from your perspective, because I mean they
Speaker 1: were they were talking about redistricting you on in that
Speaker 1: meeting where they were also just using cartoonish you know,
Speaker 1: movie villain anti black racism in a way that seemed
Speaker 1: like it was just the the accepted culture, like I mean,
Speaker 1: abhorrent language and and and homophobic tropes. You know, over
Speaker 1: and over again of the use of homophobic tropes. It
Speaker 1: was so upsetting the use of anti black language. By
Speaker 1: the way. Also, you know they they made fun of
Speaker 1: w Hawkins in Koreatown, so it's also anti indigenous, anti
Speaker 1: indigenous language. Yeah, so you know, it was abhorrent. It
Speaker 1: was an abhorrant conversation. And you know, I think my obviously,
Speaker 1: my first instinct and response was to just the level
Speaker 1: of outrage that I felt on behalf of my my
Speaker 1: colleague Mike Bond and son and his family, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike and his husband Sean, and it knew no bounds.
Speaker 1: And I think just and I was heartened to see
Speaker 1: that so many people showed up in whatever way, online,
Speaker 1: in person, via emails, via phone calls, just to say like,
Speaker 1: we reject this so wholeheartedly, like this is so not
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, you know. So I think that I just
Speaker 1: want to say that it was really like moving to
Speaker 1: be witnessed to that, and yeah, that that that's important
Speaker 1: to note. But this, you know, I think obviously I'm
Speaker 1: still grappling with it, grappling with the implications of what happened,
Speaker 1: and a couple of things I wanted to share, as
Speaker 1: you know, as you think about what we've been discussing
Speaker 1: in council for the past year, and I don't I
Speaker 1: don't mean I meant think, I meant month twenty or
Speaker 1: twenty one. Right now, I can't remember on the council
Speaker 1: and the priorities that we've been discussing on. So, you know,
Speaker 1: Kevin de Leon shared the Homelessness and Poverty Committee. Gil
Speaker 1: Sadio chaired the Housing Committee, which also encompasses renter protections.
Speaker 1: That's where we discuss, you know, keeping people housed, you know.
Speaker 1: And then Marie Martinez was the council president, which means
Speaker 1: she's set the agenda for what we discussed in the
Speaker 1: full council. And I think about some of the discussions
Speaker 1: that have occupied us and that have been some of
Speaker 1: the most conflict ridden over the past almost two years.
Speaker 1: And I think about our focus on enforcement as a
Speaker 1: response to homelessness, and our constant discussions on how we
Speaker 1: expand the scope of enforcement with regards to homelessness, and
Speaker 1: that occupied so much of our time on council, And
Speaker 1: I think about what what those discussions would have looked like,
Speaker 1: or what those priorities would have been, had the people
Speaker 1: setting the agendas not expose themselves as racists. How would
Speaker 1: that How would our agenda and homelessness and poverty look
Speaker 1: like if it was being set by people who had
Speaker 1: who had the best interests of every single person in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles at heart, you know, and I think I
Speaker 1: do think it would look different. I think for me,
Speaker 1: I've nified over and over again that a key part
Speaker 1: of why we're not able to address our homelessness crisis
Speaker 1: is housing. We simply do not have the shelter beds
Speaker 1: or the housing units to house all of our homeless people. Here.
Speaker 1: We don't have a we don't have a system that's
Speaker 1: designed to do that. New York City has more homeless
Speaker 1: people than l A County, but way fewer people on
Speaker 1: the streets. They have, you know, only like two thousand
Speaker 1: people who are on the streets. And the reason is
Speaker 1: because they have a court case that mandates that they
Speaker 1: create the number of shelter beds that they need for
Speaker 1: every single person who is experiencing homelessness in that city.
Speaker 1: And so they've had to do that and they've just
Speaker 1: done it, and here in l A we've never done it.
Speaker 1: We don't even have even right now, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that we've made more investments in shelter and in housing
Speaker 1: over the past few years than we ever have in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles city history or county history for that matter.
Speaker 1: We still don't have enough units, beds, whatever to house
Speaker 1: our entire homeless population. Houston, which has reduced its homeless
Speaker 1: population by an a star wishing, I think over the
Speaker 1: last few years, has three times the number of housing
Speaker 1: units that they have and house residents. So you see
Speaker 1: the difference that we have in our response, and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: why weren't we talking about this the entirety of the
Speaker 1: time that I've been here instead of the other thing,
Speaker 1: which is telling people where they can or can't camp, right, right,
Speaker 1: because ultimately enforcement, like you know that that helps the
Speaker 1: police stay busy. That also helps people who might be
Speaker 1: you know, maybe averse to building affordable housing or getting
Speaker 1: behind that too. That I'm sure they're like, well, let's
Speaker 1: I'm into enforcement, because I'm I'm sure there's also plenty
Speaker 1: I mean, I know there's plenty of nambiism going on
Speaker 1: to or people are like, well, there's no way I
Speaker 1: can live, but you know with these people in my community.
Speaker 1: But you're so your solution is just to kick them
Speaker 1: out rather than to say well, there is a way
Speaker 1: for them to actually move out of you know, being
Speaker 1: unhoused and potentially to be able to have a job
Speaker 1: or not be living on the street. Does that seem
Speaker 1: like a good option, But it seems like a lot
Speaker 1: of people just immediately see also help is being like, well,
Speaker 1: that's gonna mess up my property values, And I just yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to say one thing, Miles, which is
Speaker 1: that I have a I actually think Los Angeles is
Speaker 1: better than what we heard on those recordings, for sure,
Speaker 1: you know, um, And I think you're right that there
Speaker 1: is nimby pushback on specific homeless housing units. But I
Speaker 1: actually think if you look at the history of our
Speaker 1: votes on resources for homelessness, on on making sure that
Speaker 1: people have what they need in terms of addressing the
Speaker 1: lack of shelter beds, are housing, like we vote for
Speaker 1: it in droves, we vote for it overwhelmingly. Like Los
Speaker 1: Angeles is a city that gets behind housing and resources
Speaker 1: for for homelessness, And I don't want to let the
Speaker 1: actions of these three people take that away from us,
Speaker 1: like we were This is a you know, I really
Speaker 1: believe in the city, and I think that they were
Speaker 1: misguided in thinking that the agenda of the city needed
Speaker 1: to be focused on these issues, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that's the will of the people. I feel, you know
Speaker 1: that as we have a mayor race with a real
Speaker 1: estate billionaire, that's you know, coming down to the wire.
Speaker 1: It feels like I I just keep being struck by
Speaker 1: real estate, the real estate industry's role in this, and
Speaker 1: just it feels like real estate is so such a
Speaker 1: powerful force in l A. And and the real estate
Speaker 1: answer has always been, you know, just anywhere but here,
Speaker 1: like use the police to take the problem the crime
Speaker 1: the unhoused person anywhere but here, Like is is that
Speaker 1: something you see like on the ground, like in these
Speaker 1: meetings like that that you're on, Like do you do
Speaker 1: you see like those forces at play or is it
Speaker 1: like more kind of cellular down to the DNA level
Speaker 1: than that, or how do how do you think about that,
Speaker 1: like the relationship between the real estate industry here and
Speaker 1: how we respond to homelessness and affordable housing and everything,
Speaker 1: because it's yeah, so you know, I'm so I'm an
Speaker 1: urban planner by training, and I've looked at the history
Speaker 1: of affordable housing construction in America for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I will say that we've built more affordable housing
Speaker 1: here in Los Angeles over the last few years because
Speaker 1: of things called basically density bonus programs. Right, So, the
Speaker 1: way that it's been happening is that you basically provide
Speaker 1: private real estate developers the capacity to build a little
Speaker 1: bit higher if they add affordable units to their existing constructions.
Speaker 1: And as a city right now, again I'm just operating
Speaker 1: within our existing contests. I don't context. I don't have
Speaker 1: the capacity to fund a huge amount of public housing.
Speaker 1: In fact, I have almost no money for affordable housing,
Speaker 1: and so these density bonus rules are really the only
Speaker 1: way that we're creating any kind of affordable housing stock
Speaker 1: here in l A. And that's that's the reality of
Speaker 1: the context that we are in right now. I think
Speaker 1: if the president or at the federal level they made
Speaker 1: changes so that they were really funding a public housing
Speaker 1: program the way that they did in the last century,
Speaker 1: I think that we could make real progress on building
Speaker 1: more affordable units here in Los Angeles without having to
Speaker 1: rely on the private real estate sector. But we're not
Speaker 1: in that context right now, right and so you know,
Speaker 1: I think for me, the role of the private real
Speaker 1: estate industry is a very complicated one. I think there's
Speaker 1: there There are people who are very focused on policing
Speaker 1: as a response to homelessness, but I think there's also
Speaker 1: a lot of nonprofit developers, you know, even even some
Speaker 1: for profit developers who are trying to provide Section eight
Speaker 1: units who are saying we want to partner with the
Speaker 1: city and being a better in doing better and responding
Speaker 1: better to this issue. And I think what we need
Speaker 1: to be setting up is a system where where we
Speaker 1: don't have the private real estate sector either bribing their
Speaker 1: way through city politics, which is what happens all the time,
Speaker 1: or having outsized influence on decision making in the city.
Speaker 1: And I think those things can be achieved through smart
Speaker 1: interventions in campaign finance reform and in in in in
Speaker 1: really changing how we organize our Ethics Commission and our
Speaker 1: rules on lobbyists taking part in in these public conversations.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that that's how we that's
Speaker 1: how we minimize the role of any profit seeking industry
Speaker 1: on how we decide our priorities from the city. Right, Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: your job sounds hard. Yeah, I feel I feel like
Speaker 1: I talked way too much, Like but this is kind
Speaker 1: of what we're always talking or out on this show
Speaker 1: as we're you know, talking about like observing and making
Speaker 1: strange human body based metaphors about what's wrong with America.
Speaker 1: You know, is like it's very very interesting and you know,
Speaker 1: complicated and just good too good to hear from you now,
Speaker 1: you know, twenty one months into the job and here
Speaker 1: here the challenges and the where where you feel like
Speaker 1: you can you can improve and just what it is
Speaker 1: what it's like in there. So I appreciate you taking
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, and I for me like again and
Speaker 1: thinking through that initial question that you brought up around
Speaker 1: progressive power and what it means to be a progressive
Speaker 1: in America. One thing I really want to think about
Speaker 1: and talk about as we move forward is what does
Speaker 1: that look like in terms of material change for the
Speaker 1: people of my district and the people of Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: And how do we design a policy agenda that gets
Speaker 1: us there, you know, And that's that's what That's the
Speaker 1: conversation I want to be having with people who care
Speaker 1: about these issues going forward. I want to be having
Speaker 1: that with you in your audience and with the public
Speaker 1: and with constituents who care deeply about this. And the
Speaker 1: exciting thing for me in some ways, you know, this
Speaker 1: has been a very hard times, been a very hard
Speaker 1: you know, weak and change. But I also think that
Speaker 1: we can build that those material changes, like we can
Speaker 1: have those happen for people in l A. So I
Speaker 1: feel really excited about what these next steps are going
Speaker 1: to be and how we coalesce around that shared agenda
Speaker 1: and really use our power at every moment of decision
Speaker 1: making here in the city to push for that change.
Speaker 1: For Ugo, let's get let's get more progressives on the
Speaker 1: city council and for sure, but did he leak the
Speaker 1: tapes to Los Angeles Magazine? Is that what they said? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: d like front and center. That's why like this city again,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm like, ludicrous, ludicrous conspiracy here. I'd hate,
Speaker 1: I'd hate to be a politician in l A. Because
Speaker 1: there's just so there's just so much, so many ways
Speaker 1: for for people to try and derail like a legitimate
Speaker 1: push towards something that's constructive and even like the same
Speaker 1: way they're trying to even undermine, like the coalition. They're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: black and Latino, the alliance between Blacks and Latinos have
Speaker 1: already been fraught until now, and It's like ask anybody
Speaker 1: who's actually in the streets or any activists like there,
Speaker 1: people know what time it is, like you you have
Speaker 1: to be arm in arm with each other. That's the
Speaker 1: only way things are are moving. But it's interesting to
Speaker 1: see how even with this controversy too, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like you know, fuel being thrown on the fire
Speaker 1: to try and make, you know, make it seem like
Speaker 1: something else. I also just want to say that I
Speaker 1: think the system is really gross and awful, but Angelino's
Speaker 1: that's that's that was okay by everyone. Actually, we did
Speaker 1: forget to take our second break, so let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break and then we'll come back and say our
Speaker 1: official goodbyes and we're back. And you you were just
Speaker 1: saying that the systems gross, and that's all you have
Speaker 1: to say on that the systems gross. But I also
Speaker 1: I think that Angelinos are amazing. And you're absolutely right
Speaker 1: that people on the street they don't they absolutely don't
Speaker 1: agree with what that vision of you know, of a
Speaker 1: contentious fight between black, black Angelinos and Latino like, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't That's not how they read the world, that's
Speaker 1: not how they paid the city around them. And right
Speaker 1: and it's clear that at that level for the nurse
Speaker 1: and Gills and Kevin's of the world, that what that's
Speaker 1: their world view of how power works. And there's clearly
Speaker 1: another version where people look at the ongoing issues and say, well,
Speaker 1: these aren't actually the solutions to these and working to them,
Speaker 1: like working with each other sincerely, is actually how we're
Speaker 1: going to get some like material changes you're saying, and
Speaker 1: that's the only way. But yeah, yes, exactly. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a really troubled time, but you can see that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of possibility on the other side. And I
Speaker 1: think that's at least the part I lean into without
Speaker 1: becoming fully nihilistic about being a lifelong Angelino. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff? Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can follow the Council Office. You just look up
Speaker 1: c D four Los Angeles on any of your social
Speaker 1: media platforms. I do some of my policy thinking on
Speaker 1: my personal stuff, so I'm usually at you can just
Speaker 1: look me up at THEA for the city or Nitia
Speaker 1: v Raman on Twitter and Instagram. Um. And I also
Speaker 1: wanted to plug the United to how's l a ballot
Speaker 1: measure which is amazing and it can actually give us
Speaker 1: the money to build exactly the kind of affordable housing
Speaker 1: and homeless solutions that we need to to get us
Speaker 1: out of this moment of crisis. And that's I'm gonna
Speaker 1: that's going to be on your ballot. You should already
Speaker 1: have your ballots at home if you live in the
Speaker 1: l A. And it's taxes real estate sales over some
Speaker 1: number of million dollars. I mean, it's not going to
Speaker 1: impact ordinary people, and it's going to generate a lot
Speaker 1: of money for for all the good stuff that we
Speaker 1: need to be building, the concrete stuff that we need
Speaker 1: to be building. So United's how's l a boat? Yes,
Speaker 1: there you go. And is there a tweet or some
Speaker 1: of the work of social media you've been enjoying? Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: we're a show. I mean, you know some other work
Speaker 1: of social media that I've been enjoying. Social is your currency?
Speaker 1: What are you enjoying? Oh? Allow us to tell you
Speaker 1: that from you? I need enjoyed that. Well, I will look.
Speaker 1: You can find me at Miles of Gray on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram. Also checked Jack and I out on Miles
Speaker 1: and Jack Got Mad Basketball for our podcast and also
Speaker 1: if you like y fiance checked me and Sophia Alexandrow
Speaker 1: on Four Day Fiance. The Predictions episode this this week
Speaker 1: because the season is beginning. Yes, yes, wait for some
Speaker 1: real off base predictions. Must Some tweets that I like,
Speaker 1: Let's see first. One is from Costs at cost on
Speaker 1: c a a underscore tweeted as a hater, I'm so
Speaker 1: happy Tom Brady came out of retirement watching him go
Speaker 1: out sad He's even better than I could have imagined.
Speaker 1: Uh And I was like in that one. And then
Speaker 1: Miss Hollywood at Carter for Real tweeted fake passed out
Speaker 1: on my three year old daughter and she still didn't call.
Speaker 1: She punched me in my face and yelled, you can't
Speaker 1: die right now. That's ridiculous. Also like maybe my worst
Speaker 1: nightmare as a child, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: when I should be like watching my parents sleep and stuff.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah, I'm I'm always tempted to do that,
Speaker 1: to be like how they react? How would they react?
Speaker 1: But I don't. I don't get Yeah, I've yet to
Speaker 1: pretend I was dead for my four and six year
Speaker 1: old for your Weekend at Bernie's emotional test. Yeah, yeah, alright.
Speaker 1: Some tweets I've been enjoying Old Tom at Yucky Tom tweeted,
Speaker 1: got high. I went to the gym and I turned
Speaker 1: to my buddy and said, who's this guy? Supposed to
Speaker 1: be Steve Pineapple? And when he said what, I realized
Speaker 1: this was a character of my own creation, from deep
Speaker 1: within my subconscious and not a reference burn anyone would understand.
Speaker 1: And that just brought me back to the weirdness of
Speaker 1: being high back when I was also not good on
Speaker 1: Big Spooky Dead tweeted, I went to the Silly Goose
Speaker 1: convention and they all knew you, which is just a
Speaker 1: good thing to say to people. And then on the
Speaker 1: subject of local politics, you know, as this is a
Speaker 1: good way to put put something in terms I can understand.
Speaker 1: Brent to dairy and twittered a picture of a T
Speaker 1: shirt at a one of the baseball games that was
Speaker 1: happening this weekend, said, the shirt makes a really good point.
Speaker 1: Vote and the shirt says the mayor from Jaws is
Speaker 1: still the mayor in Jaws too. It is so important
Speaker 1: to vote in your local elections. In facts, how he
Speaker 1: how he weathered that storm of being like we're keeping
Speaker 1: the damn beaches open, shark attacks be damned and then
Speaker 1: like three people got eaten in front of everyone, like
Speaker 1: it was a spectator sport. That's I don't know what
Speaker 1: his comms team must have been putting in work. Spectacular, constant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of the best to ever do it. You can
Speaker 1: find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. You can
Speaker 1: find us on Twitter at daily Zeitgeist. We're at dee
Speaker 1: daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a fifth book fan
Speaker 1: page on a website daily zeygeist dot com where we
Speaker 1: post our episod, we done our foot notes, or we
Speaker 1: link off to the information that we talked about in
Speaker 1: today's episode, as well as the song that we think
Speaker 1: you might enjoy. Hey, Miles, what's the song that we
Speaker 1: think people might enjoy it? Oh? Man, I'm telling you. Okay,
Speaker 1: So this is I'm gonna I'm back on my drumming
Speaker 1: bass thing. Okay, I know it's some sometimes you were
Speaker 1: like Miles, right, you listening so much drumming bass because
Speaker 1: sometimes it feels free and to listen to drumm and
Speaker 1: bass while you're bicycling around the city. Okay. And there's
Speaker 1: this one is a fantastic mashup of a Brazilian track
Speaker 1: that I think is I want to say, let me
Speaker 1: just make sure I know who the original track is.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so Barbatukas, who's like the Brazilian version of Stomp.
Speaker 1: They have a track called Buyana and then this artist
Speaker 1: called Nia Archives did a drum and bass remixed to it,
Speaker 1: and just as somebody who loves Brazilian music and drum
Speaker 1: and bass, it was just a very pleasant surprise to hear.
Speaker 1: So this is Buyanna by Nia Archives. Listen to it
Speaker 1: while you b Yeah, maybe do a little freestyle like
Speaker 1: you know, look, you're just all over you know. I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to put people in danger out there, spect
Speaker 1: if you can't freestyle, so maybe free style bike and
Speaker 1: put on your makeup. That would be truly amazing. I
Speaker 1: was doing their makeup well if so, send video for proof.
Speaker 1: The Daily Zye Guys the production of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast for My Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you're listening to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. That is going to do it for
Speaker 1: us this morning, back this afternoon to tell you what
Speaker 1: is trending and bye bye