Elizabeth Barcohana on the State of the Mayor's and Governor's Race

00:00:00
Speaker 1: It is the fixed California Hour. Johnny is on vacation. He's back on Monday, so it's Randy Wang here, and the phone number to join us is eight hundred two two two five two two two one eight hundred two two two five two two two. You can email us at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com, search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to my substack for the daily rundown of everything that's going on in the state of California, including a California court banning the cars for Kids ads at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. We will get to that story. We're gonna have to. Most of the emails today have been about that ad, because if you've listened to radio as much as I have, and the forty years I've been on this earth, you've heard that commercial ten billion times. Our next guest is one of my favorites that we have on regularly on the five o'clock show that I do, the News Blitz with Randy Wang. If you're listening in KSFO, you can listen to that show on KABC dot com every single day at five o'clock where I do my daily run down the California Report. But my next guest is a political commentator, a mother, wife, lawyer. She's on the LAGOP Central Committee, She's a California GOP delegate and she knows her stuff. She is very prominent on social media with her Instagram account Elizabeth from California and on Twitter at e underscore of Barkohanna. Elizabeth Barkohonna. Welcome to the John Phillips Show.

00:01:32
Speaker 2: Hey Randy, I'm so happy to be here on a different time slot talking to a brand new audience of listeners.

00:01:40
Speaker 1: Elizabeth, Let's start at the LA mayors race. Last week there was a debate on NBC four between Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt, and Nithia Rahman, and the takeaway from all three of those candidates seem to be there should be no more debates. What do you think about last week debate?

00:02:02
Speaker 2: I think the debate basically took Nithia Rahman out as a legitimate contender, which was good because she is even further to the left than Mayor Bath. And you know, we call her mom Donnie two point zero because she is a DSA affiliated candidate. And while you know Karen Bass is more closely aligned to establishment, but she also still has roots in, you know, the communist movement in Cuba and also you know, supported by labor unions and definitely elements of the progressive left as well. So it's not like she's a moderate by any means. But also, you know, Spencer Pratt really came across as a very relatable, normal guy who has grown up in La. He and I are about the same age, and we grew up at a time where it was safe to play in the streets in La We cannot do that with our own kids anymore. We went to college when it wasn't over one hundred thousand dollars a year for tuition. It's not like that anymore. We went, you know, we grew. We had in our twenties, La nightlife and restaurants and Hollywood was like really at its height. It was. It was a great, great time back then. Not true anymore. You know. Part of Spencer's campaign talks about how many restaurants are closing because they can't survive, not only because of the regulations, but also because of the homeless drug addicts that hang out in the entrances of you know, restaurants, and small businesses and basically make it unpleasant for patrons or unsafe for patrons to come there. There's also you know, the far left really pushes housing for the homeless without any requirements to be clean and silber. And what ends up happening is these housing projects that get embedded in communities near businesses and particularly near restaurants, they attract infestations and those then you know, because it's in close proximity to restaurants they closed. They end up causing the restaurants to fail public health inspections for like you know, rats and bourman and cockroaches and things like that. And then they have the clothes. So there's like a a you know, this this nostalgia for the time in LA where we grew up and became adults and had jobs to go to and when we graduated school and none of that is part of the quality of life here in Los Angeles. And those of us who have young kids like he and I or or older you know, in high school in college, we really really worry about our kids. The people that are you know, grandparents now they have tears in their eyes because their children cannot afford a comfortable quality of life here, and so they end up moving away. Even if they move, you know, thirty forty minutes outside of the city of la they're still not seeing their grandchildren regularly like it was when we grew up, and so people are fed up with that. And that is the magic of Spencer Pratt's campaign. And Karen bass cannot combat that messaging. She has been in the incumbent for four years. All of this degradation and decline has happened under her watch, as well as Nissa Rahman, who is also an incumbent city council member. They own this. They on the results and Bassetts stood up there and said homelessness has decreased seventeen percent. Well, those of us who listen to the John Phillips Show and are paying attention, we know, first of all, with our own eyes that that's not true. And second of all, that statistic comes from LASA, which those of us locals know. LASA has been under fire and in federal court for a long time because they cannot account for the money that they've been spending. They and it's not a reliable way to account for the homelessness. They do this point in time count where basically they get a bunch of volunteers to go out one day and count the homeless, and they undercount by sixty to seventy percent. And excuse me, but they undercount. They only get sixty to seventy percent. So we know that it's an undercount. We know that skid Row has grown from a row to a fifty block ten city, and it's growing actually measurably three percent every year. So those of us who live here, we know what they're saying is just not true.

00:07:12
Speaker 1: Well, and I think that's the big takeaway that we saw. Karen Bass's takeaway from the debate was things are improving, but these problems go back thirty forty years and I need more time. Nythia Rahman's takeaway was I'll do everything Karen Bess does, but I'll be more focused. And Spencer Prad's takeaway, which it certainly seems relatable to people that are born and raised in this city, is this city has only gotten worse over the last four years, right, why.

00:07:41
Speaker 2: Would you expect it to get any better? But they're not offering different solutions. This Hiramans solution was we can't afford police. Who wants to hear that? Right? Now who's messaging who is that messaging to? Nobody wants to hear.

00:07:56
Speaker 1: That well, And specifically, what I think Spencer has pointed out is Nythia Rahman will go to whatever the policy is that she thinks is popular. So she was all about defund the police when she originally ran for city council. Now she doesn't even want to talk about that when it's brought up, and she says, well that the police department is the right size it needs to be. What we really need is more unarmed crisis responders. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.

00:08:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I mean, that's obviously a very dangerous waste of money. And the way it is right now with our police force, for a city the size of Los Angeles, our ratio of officers to citizens is one of the lowest of all the big cities in the country. We already don't have enough police on our streets, and a lot of people don't outside of Nythia Rahman's district. Don't know her very well. But she could pay for more overtime and more patrol on in her district and budget for it and request it, but she doesn't. And it was in her district a little while ago where an elderly couple walked came home grocery shopping and there was somebody who had a home a home invader, their houses being burglarized and he killed them. That happened in her district. And that is not an unusual story anymore. You know. We had in Venice last weekend. There were three stabbings in one weekend, like near the whole Food's there. But mom's family, children, We deserve to feel safe. That is what our taxpayer money should be spent on. That should be the priority, and instead it's spent on all these pet projects. It disappears into these NGOs, you know. Adam Miller another another candidates that people talk about a lot on the west side of LA not polling very well. But he's like an I think he's meant to be like an alternative place for the anti bath vote on land. But he's the head of a homelessess andngo where his organization received a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars grant from the Fiery Concert, which was not taxpayer money, private money intended to go to the fire victim. And the only reporting that I've seen that have accounted for any of that seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars was a sixty thousand dollars disbursement to a few hundred families. Where is the rest of that money? Where is the billions of our taxpayer money that is going to these organizations that are not effective? They are stealing our money and the quality of life continues to decline. So you cannot vote for the people that includes incomment Mayor Bath includes sitting council members, Niraman includes head of an NGO, Adam Miller. Cannot vote for the same people who have been the leaders of the decline and expect things to change. You have to vote for something different. And Spencer Pratt offers an alternative vision that people are gravitating towards very naturally because his platform is enforced the law and stop stealing our money? Who does not want?

00:11:36
Speaker 1: You know? This abiliant message definitely a better message than what are you talking about? Crime is at the lowest level since the nineteen sixties. That's right, we're talking to Elizabeth barko'honna. You can follow on Instagram at Elizabeth from California and on exit e underscore Barkohanna. Now Elizabeth, You've been tracking all of the turnout that we're seeing so far from the early ballot trackers. People can vote right now. Election day is June tewid, but everyone in the state of California got their ballot. You have been advocating very passionately about the importance to vote early. What are you seeing so far when it comes to turnout locally in places like la but also statewide.

00:12:23
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm so glad you asked me this question. There are a lot of misconceptions among voters about the importance of early voting. So the conventional wisdom is, why does it matter when I vote? As long as I know I'm going to vote, and it's just one person, one vote, it doesn't actually change the total. But that's incorrect because now that we have a month long voting period where we have a universal mail ballot system, so everybody can participate in this early vote. What the real message is is that the more people who vote earlier end up creating a momentum that drives the overall turnout higher. And that is what we are seeing right now. We are seeing, but it's not the same for Democrats as Republicans. So what we are seeing is a very high turnout amongst Republicans relative to not only past elections, but to our registration share. So we turn that overperforming Republicans are overperforming their registration share by eleven points. In the city of La These are unprecedented numbers. On the flip side, the Democrats are underperforming by five points. The reason for that, we believe, is because the governor's race on the Democrat side is so fluid that they are holding onto their ballots because they don't know who the real front runner is going to be. Because the Sarah and sire are tied. Gavin Newsom keeps getting asked where you're going to endorse. He doesn't, you know, we don't know who is going to emerge. And so but on the Republican side, especially in LA, we know we want to vote for Spencer Prattford mayor, and most people want to vote for Steve Hilton for governor to make sure that we get one of them through. And so we are decided and we are voting earlier. So what that does is when the numbers with now people have been voting for about two weeks and we have a whole nother week before in person voting starts. So if you're an undecided voter or what we call vog pen city voter, someone who doesn't vote every election, or someone who thinks, like, what's the point of voting if my guide doesn't have a chance to win. If you see in the first three weeks of voting that actually Republicans, you know, can catch up to the Democrats, or Republicans are on pace with the Democrats, then that person may turn out to vote and when they otherwise wouldn't have. So these are like the psychological kind of factors that go into how you turn out the vote. The people who are decided should have already voted by mail by now. And you know, I used to get a lot of pushback when I would say that because people are just not comfortable voting by mail, which I understand. But we have a tracking system and when you put your ballot in the mail, you can watch it like you can watch a setex package, and you do that on ballottracks dot net. It's b a llot and then tracks tr ax dot net and you go on that website and you can even sign up for text messages and you'll get text updates when your ballot arrives at the registrar's office and then it'll be counted and so or alternatively, if there's a problem with it, like your signature didn't match, or it didn't get there in time, or whatever the problem is, you will know about it before election day and then you can go in person to vote and then your vote will be counted, rather than waiting until the last minute finding out that there's a problem after election day, when you know results are already in, or it's too late, or you know you're not motivated to go fix it, or you don't even know about it. So there's a lot of advantages and benefits to the voter for mailing a ballot early, but it also helps us to win. It is the too big to rig strategy requires hyperpensity decided voters to start voting earlier so that that momentum can build over the month as we go into election day.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: Elizabeth, we've only got about two minutes left, but i'd love to pick your brain on this. The governor's race is the top ticket item. You have sixty one people running. There are notably about seven or eight Democrats that are prominent. They're running. There are two prominent Republicans that are running. Some people, including my radio partner, have endorsed a strategy of splitting the vote to try to get the two Republicans in the top two spots for the runoff in November. You disagree with that strategy. What would you say about that?

00:17:46
Speaker 2: I would say that I have always been against that strategy because we, first of all, don't really have the numbers for that. Second of all, it depends on the Democrats remaining split. What if something happens and they end up consolidating around the sera in the next week or so. Now we have set ourselves up to take a really big risk of not getting in, or what if stire surges and now we have we end up with a situation where Hilton slips the third And we saw that in the Emerson poll that just came out a couple of days ago, where Hilton slipped to the top to the third spot, meaning we're going to have two Republicans. Now, if Bianco's twelve percent of voters had been added to Hilton's eighteen percent, then the Republican would be winning by ten points. Now imagine that headline when America wakes up on June third to see California Republican beats Democrats by ten points. I mean, that would be an unbelievably energized, being bombshell that would reverberate around the country going into the midterms. So it's not a realistic strategy to think that two Republicans are going to make it into the top two. The polling does not support that.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: Elizabeth barko'honna, I could talk to you all day, but unfortunately we have to take these things called commercial breaks. You can follow her on Instagram and Elizabeth from California and on ex at e Underscore bark o'hanna. She does a great job of keeping everyone up to date on everything that's going on in the California elections as well as the local elections in La. Elizabeth barko'hanna, thank you so much as always for joining us.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: Thanks Randy, good to be with you.

00:19:44
Speaker 1: Can I just say I have been having a blast this week. It has been so much fun doing this. I used to get real stressed out about these fill in weeks, but you know, no matter what your craft is in life, if you really really real put in the reps and I have been doing broadcast radio in Los Angeles. This will be my twentieth year. You do get to a point where you're like, yeah, I got nothing to be worried about anymore. I could do this, but it'll be a lot of fun to have Johnny back tomorrow. Really enjoy doing this stuff by myself, But I really really have a lot of fun, and I'm just laughing for three hours straight when John and I put on our silly little show from noon to three every day. But if you do enjoy me solo, I do a style will solo show every single day on our southern California station KABC, and you can search for it. Did I say John is back tomorrow? He's back on Monday. Tomorrow's a weekend. Whoops. Anyway, I do a five o'clock show. It's called The news Blitz with Randy Wang, and you can listen to it if you're in the Bay Area by going to KABC dot com or searching for the John Phillips Show. Nope, searching for the KABC News Blitz wherever you get your Pope podcast. Hey, let's give something away. Since I can no longer say anything straight. As I just talked about what a great broadcaster I Am seven ninety KABC welcomes Andrea Bocelli to the Hollywood Ball September fifteenth and sixteenth. Tickets around sale now at ticketmaster dot com, but right now Collin number nine at one eight at eight seven ninety five two to two two gets a pair of tickets to the show on September sixteenth. Tickets furnished by Live Nation Good Luck dialing. There is definitely a choice to be made in the City of Los Angeles in the mayor's election. We have seen what three and a half years of Karen Bass looks like. If you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, let's get help for you. We do have a vision of what the city of Los Angeles could look like for Spencer Pratt. But I'm here to tell you that there are worse options than Karen Bass getting another four years.

00:21:56
Speaker 3: Oh you're so optimistic.

00:21:59
Speaker 1: Because as bad as things are now, and I will go on the record every single day and claim, as somebody that does this for a living, talks about and investigates Los Angeles news and politics, that Karen Bass is worse than Eric Garcetti ever was. I received things on both ends that guy was a better mayor than Karen Bass. I give him the full face, but it can get a lot worse than Karen Bass. And that's why I'm so glad that ABC seven decided to do a candidate interview series with all the top candidates running for LA mayor. Because in case you don't live in Sherman Oaks, or Encino or Los Phelis, and you don't know who Nthia Rahman is, well, buckle up, buttercup, it's time for you to find out.

00:22:49
Speaker 4: Out to the race for Los Angeles mayor. As we said yesterday, mail in bowing has begun, but forty percent or so voters are still undecided. So all we are sitting.

00:23:01
Speaker 1: Which, by the way, when you're an incumbent facing reelection and forty percent of the population is undecided, not a good look.

00:23:08
Speaker 4: With the top candidates running for the city's highest office, going deeper into their proposals and strategies, sitting down one on one to help you decide who you would like to vote for. Eyewitness News political reporter Josh Haskell is joining us now with today's guest, LA City Council Member Nythia Rahmen. Josh, thanks so much, Philip.

00:23:28
Speaker 5: We have Nythia Rahman here. She's served in the LA Council district for since twenty twenty. Now her sites are set on a different seat at city Hall. Nythia, welcome. I wanted to ask you is I've been covering this campaign and I've been interviewing you. You're working very hard to carve out your own lane and separate yourself from the rest of the field, but it seems like they keep trying to bring you back in. Spencer Pratt has said you would just be a continuation of mayor baths.

00:23:53
Speaker 1: That is what Nythia Rahman has said her answer to every question. And I've listened to a lot of Nithia Ramen interviews, including when she was on with John Lovett of Podsave America because he can't stand how crazy Los Angeles is. That well, I would do what Karen Bass is doing. I would just be more focused. I would be so much more focused. She's just not focused.

00:24:15
Speaker 5: Mayor Bass has said that you're trying to diminish yourself, that you have been at city Hall two years longer than her. Would a mayor Nathiur Rahman be more of the same.

00:24:26
Speaker 6: You know, as a council member, you have some power to shape the city, but the mayor is the chief executive of the city.

00:24:34
Speaker 1: You know what this entire race has been between Nithy and Karen Bass a blame game. Of the problems of La are the mayor's fault. Know they're the city council's far Know they're the mayor's fault. Webbit season, duck season, and all of its departments.

00:24:47
Speaker 6: And right now our departments are not being responsive to the needs of the people. They don't have priorities set for them. Many of the same general managers are there.

00:24:56
Speaker 1: Can't you call any one of these people in and your committee hearings and beret them on the city council. Can't you use your bully pulpit as one of the members of the city council. Can't you call the mayor and say fire the head of so and so.

00:25:08
Speaker 6: From the Garciti administration. They don't understand what this mayor's priorities are. I want to reshape the departments to make sure that they're actually functioning for the people, and that starts with ensuring that general managers know what the city's priorities are and how we want to be able to improve life here in Los Angeles, instead of making it harder.

00:25:26
Speaker 1: We're starting so far in the weeds, it's hard for anyone to really get a general understanding of what Nithia Rama is for.

00:25:33
Speaker 6: Instead of making it harder, as so many Angelinos feel like it has been getting over the last couple of years.

00:25:39
Speaker 5: So what you're saying is it's not accurate to say that Nithia Rahman would just be a continuation of the Bass administration.

00:25:45
Speaker 6: I will tell you that as a council member, I have put forward motion after motion, asking and demanding change from the city and from the departments, and they ignore the council.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: We don't have any power. We're just the La City Council.

00:26:02
Speaker 6: Really, the departments are responsive to the mayor, and the departments need to change. The city needs to change in order to serve Angelina knows better.

00:26:08
Speaker 5: I hear you say that you feel limited at times in your power on the council, But Mayor Bass has told me the same. A lot of the things that she's wanted to pass, she has not been able to specifically with the size of the LAPD. The council, including yourself, voted against her proposal. We know that those numbers did change eventually, but she says she did not get what she wanted. So is there a chance that maybe the power that you believe the mayor's office has is not really as much as you're saying it is.

00:26:37
Speaker 6: No, I mean, I think the mayor has a significant amount of power. Talking specifically about the size of the police force. The mayor actually signed a contract with the police, with the police union giving them significantly more money.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the city council approved that budget, so you're all culpable. There is no blame game of No, this isn't my fault, this is your fault. It's all of your fault.

00:26:59
Speaker 6: Saying that that much would increase the size of the police force now we have.

00:27:03
Speaker 1: And by the way, they didn't just give a raise to the police officers, which they needed just to deal with competition. They also gave a raise to every single department in the city, including giving a fifty percent raise to the ex gang member violence interrupters. Because Karen bas quote to the BLM crowd, said in an actual budget presentation, if we don't pay them sixty thousand dollars, they'll just go to a life of crime again.

00:27:31
Speaker 6: One thousan five hundred fewer officers that we're paying half a billion dollars more every year for. And so I don't think it is a lack of funding that is propelling the size of the police department. It is a failure to ensure that our personnel department and our hiring practices are reflecting the urgency that the mayor feels. And that is the failure of the departments, a failure of executive leadership. And that's exactly what I'm talking about. The mayor is the chief executive of the city. The mayor has to change the city to respond to the people's needs.

00:28:01
Speaker 5: In regards to the LAPD, one of the competitors in this race, Spencer Pratt, has said when defunding the police was trendy with her base, talking about you, she leaned in. Now that families are less safe, suddenly she's against it. Where do you stand on defunding the police?

00:28:16
Speaker 1: You know, I love when they're using truisms from Spencer Pratt as questions.

00:28:20
Speaker 6: You know, I voted for budgets at the city that have maintained and expanded the police force, but I've pushed back against contracts that I felt were fiscally irresponsible In twenty twenty three, the mayor signed a new contract with pd that gave the police union more money than the city even had, which directly.

00:28:40
Speaker 1: Also every other department, but we like to forget that one. Also, the city council signed off on that budget.

00:28:47
Speaker 6: Which directly led to a significant budget deficit that we had to deal with last year. Over a billion dollar budget deficit.

00:28:54
Speaker 1: Well, that was also from a whole bunch of liability that.

00:28:57
Speaker 6: Then resulted in worseblic safety outcomes, fewer officers than we had before that we were paying more money for and nine to one one call times that increased because we weren't able to afford nine to one one call takers.

00:29:11
Speaker 1: Again, this is what's difficult. She is part of the city government. She's an instrumental part of the city government. She was the third most powerful member on the city council. But none of the problems in the city are her fault. They're all the mayor's fault. It doesn't really work.

00:29:25
Speaker 6: We aren't able.

00:29:26
Speaker 1: She is as much, if not more, of an incumbent than Karen Bass's.

00:29:29
Speaker 6: We aren't able to build out a system of public safety that's actually responsive to people's needs. What I want to do, Josh is to have an honest conversation about what it's going to take to deliver on public safety outcomes.

00:29:40
Speaker 2: For Angelina's.

00:29:41
Speaker 6: Public safety is one of the most important things for every single family and person living in the city of Los Angeles. But if we are giving lip service to this idea instead of actually building out a system of safety that.

00:29:54
Speaker 1: Works, what does that mean, Nithia. Let me guess, unarmed crisis responders.

00:30:00
Speaker 6: And we're going to get the dysfunctional system that we have in Los Angeles right now. Let's change that conversation. Let's be honest about what we need.

00:30:05
Speaker 5: So this national movement defunding the police that the DSA still supports, that's not something that you support.

00:30:11
Speaker 6: I support having an honest conversation about what it's going to take to the deliverable public safety outcomes. And that's exactly the conversation that I've been pushing for throughout this entire campaign.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: Boy can't do a yes or no for that question. Kenya Nathia. She's doing a fine balance here because if she says she's all in with the DSA, that only has a certain sealing of support. But if she says that she's not for defunding the police, well, then the DSA people, they're going to destroy her.

00:30:38
Speaker 5: In regards to homelessness, you have been the chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee. How are you not responsible for some of the city's failures on homelessess.

00:30:47
Speaker 6: You know, one of the biggest things that I've been pushing for that the city has not responded on this mayor has actually not delivered on, is that creating real accountability at city Hall on homelessness.

00:30:57
Speaker 1: The City Council voted to extend Karen Bass this state of emergency, which meant no accountability time and time and time and time again. And she didn't care about any of this untill she started to start running. They're both failures.

00:31:10
Speaker 6: Right now in the city. As I've said for years and tried to change, we don't have a single point of accountability in the city. We don't have real oversight over the hundreds of millions of dollars that this city is spending on homelessness every single year. That is a travesty. We absolutely need to have that. Last year, during the budget process, I was finally able to establish a Bureau of Homelessness Oversight at the Housing Department. That would actually track these dollars, track outcomes, and ensure that every single tax dollar that we were paying into homelessness was actually resulting in people moving off the streets and indoors.

00:31:45
Speaker 1: And what were you going to do with all the organizations that aren't doing a damn thing, which is most of them, get rid of them? I don't think so. Karen Bass is terrible. Nithia Rahmen would be worse. Let's go to Hay sus in La Hey, sus Hello, Hey, go afternoon.

00:32:04
Speaker 7: I just want to say that sadly right now, I have friends who works for the LAPD and they're not getting paid overtime. When they work overtime, they put it for vacation, but then they ask for vacation. They don't give them vacation because they don't have enough people. So this guy's are working overtime without getting paid.

00:32:26
Speaker 1: That is not cool. For a stretch thin as our officers are. They should be getting paid and compensated when we have to force them to work overtime because their department is so understaffed. That's awful.

00:32:38
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is happening right now. And another thing there, if somebody complains for any little thing they take up the police officer, even if it might be alive. They just take them off without paid until it takes months for them to investigate. This is really bad for the LAPD. The graduation classes for LP right now with twenty people. Yeah, that's how bad it is.

00:33:02
Speaker 1: We're not getting anywhere close to attrition. Other departments are safer, They treat their officers better, and some of them pay more. So why, oh why would you want to be in this department. Thanks so much for the call. Appreciate it. Now. You thought it was bad with Nithia Rahman, let me tell you it can get even worse than that. When we come back, you'll hear from the other socialist in the race, Ray Hwang, No Relation talks to ABC seven. Let's go to John and El Segundo. John, Hello, Hello, Randy, how you doing doing great good?

00:33:35
Speaker 3: I'm pretty passionate about this subject. A number of years ago, I met a homeless skid row drunk his description on the street. He washed my windshield. We talked for ten minutes. Two days later I moved him into my house. He lived on the couch. I had a three year old to one and a half year old at the time. He was whoop Us on and off for seven years, primarily on and he had been in over one hundred coast to coast Common Nation detox units, hospitals, jales, silver living houses, well the last his last stop before he became totally clean and sober, which he is now successful, married, general contractor, has a kid, owns a house, was at the adult was at the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center. They're successful. Why instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars doing trying to reinvent the wheel, why not go to the people that run the wheel and say, here, we'll give you one hundred million dollars, well the fifty million dollars, but we want you to come back and in a month two months, tell us exactly what we can get for it, how much, what kind of success rate we can have. I'm sure it would be better than we've got so far. And if we like that, we're going to we'll fund that money, and if it works great, then the next year will be increase it, and increase it and increase it. That's one idea that I had. The other was a tent city out in the desert Palm desert palm out by out there somewhere Lancaster Lands cheap. We could put up you could buy land cheap or rent it cheap. Put up a tenth city out there where you've got where, you've got a medical you've got water, you've got showers, you've got kitchens, you've got lodging three four, five days a week, you have subcontractors come out there, you have partners.

00:35:19
Speaker 1: Oh you're so right, John, Those are both really common sense ideas and both ideas that would really work. But our current electeds have no interest in actually solving the problem. Thank you so much for the call, appreciate it. Yes, Salvation Army does a great job. Union Rescue Mission does a fantastic job. We could centralize the problem into one giant hospital setting, but our electeds refuse to do that, and you have to wonder why. All Right, it's bad under Karen Bass, it would be worse under Nathia Rahman. It'll be even worse if somehow Ray Huang gets elected. The other socialist.

00:35:57
Speaker 4: Political reporter, Josh Haskell, joins us. Now, Josh take it away.

00:36:01
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm joined by Ray Wong. She's a housing advocate, community organizer, and we're thankful that she's here with us to answer some of our questions ahead of the June second mayoral primary. First off, Ray, I wanted to ask you. You have said that the LAPD is one of the biggest legal gangs in the world.

00:36:20
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that. We're getting right into it.

00:36:23
Speaker 8: I mean they've been They are historically known to be corrupt, to be racist, to be classiest, to be sexist, to be homophobic. We've seen their all the ists. We've seen their ability to control so much of city Hall gets to do. So much of our city budget goes to LAPD. Even though while we've seen a drop in crime, while the numbers of LAPD go down, we continue to fund this community or this particular organization that doesn't actually make people feel safe or secure.

00:36:52
Speaker 5: So let's talk about your safety plan. You've said that you want to reinvest in real safety for the people, and I've read through your plan. Lan would cut LAPD's budget. It would remove a lot of the top brass at LAPD. It would prosecute LPD officers for certain crimes.

00:37:08
Speaker 1: Well, the DSA really has one note and one note only.

00:37:11
Speaker 5: For certain crimes.

00:37:12
Speaker 4: It would really change the shape of.

00:37:14
Speaker 5: The entire department. How would that keep people safe?

00:37:18
Speaker 8: Well, here's the thing. When crime happens, that's after crime has happened. That's when LAPD shows up. So some thing's already occurred. So the way we need to prevent crime from happening is stopping it from happening in the first place. And the way we do that is provide people with their basic needs.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: There wouldn't be any crime if we just gave everyone a check.

00:37:45
Speaker 8: All right, people need housing. Housing is a human right. That's what I believe housing should be for people, not for profit.

00:37:53
Speaker 1: And so we need to make house So if we gave housing to everybody, then those transnational gangs that are going up and down in the houses of the San Fernande Valley won't break into your house.

00:38:04
Speaker 8: What And so we need to make housing a real reality for most folks because a lot of people can't stay stably house another area, right, job security. A lot of folks have to work more than two jobs, maybe three jobs, to be able to live right now, survive here in Los Angeles. What if people actually had enough so that they weren't looking for other economic opportunities that might be illegal.

00:38:24
Speaker 1: That is a way to say crime looking for other economic opportunities that might be illegal. La is bad. It can either get better, stay the same, get worse, or go into literal la la land.