Karen Bass is polling at only 20 percent in her reelection bid

00:00:00
Speaker 1: And very happy Wednesday to you. At twelve oh seven in the West, it's the John of Philip Show, Mister Randy Wggings in Culver City. John.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: After another violent, deadly shooting weekend in Oakland, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee had to explain to kron four that don't worry, we've got enough police officers.

00:00:21
Speaker 3: We're not short of seven hundred police officers. Our goal is to get to seven hundred police officers. We have probably about six hundred and fifteen officers right now who are sworn officers, and some of course are on medical leave or administrative even quite frankly, they're coming back.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: Boy, you got rid of Shang Tao for that.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: I do not understand you removed Shang Tao, and I understand why, but you replaced her with someone who is just as bad and not nearly as entertaining.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: Good question. Yes, it's been amazing. It's crazy how their ideology is exactly the same. It's just she's performing Shang's act in the body of a tired eighty year old woman. Absolutely, absolutely good job. Oakland. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, it's time to move from one failed mayor to another. In Los Angeles, in battled mayor Karen Bass is seeking another four years as mayor of America's second largest city. However, a new poll says that eighty percent of Angelino's either support someone else or unsure as to how they're going to vote in the mayoral election.

00:01:51
Speaker 2: No, these are unprecedented numbers for an incumbent. These are Eric Adams numbers for an incumbency reelection, and the latest inside California politics Emerson polling shows that only nineteen and a half percent of respondents will be voting for Karen Bass's reelection. Spencer Pratt comes in second place with just over ten percent, then Nathia Rahman at nine percent, Adam Miller at four percent, and Ray Huang no relation at three percent, three percent for someone else, and fifty percent have no idea who they're going to be voting for in the LA mayors race that is less than three months away.

00:02:36
Speaker 1: The first thing that I thought of when I saw those numbers is why in the hell did Rick Caruso take a pass?

00:02:43
Speaker 2: I thought the exact same thing. This morning, I am on my walk, and I'm like, Rick Caruso could have ran away with this thing.

00:02:52
Speaker 1: I wonder if he can run as a write in candidate at this point.

00:02:55
Speaker 2: Oh, I think it's it's already over. I mean, he may have just decided screw politics. I can do plenty of things as a private citizen and not have half the city hate my guts. But yes, this would have been an easy win for him. It looks like because Karen Bass is historically unpopular. I don't think Eric Garcetti ever saw numbers this bad.

00:03:16
Speaker 4: I receive things on both ends.

00:03:18
Speaker 1: No, I think you're right. And what was crazy to me is that Rick Caruso never really expressed much interest in state politics, but all the chatter was that he was going to run for governor. I don't think there was any chance that he had of winning that race. I thought he would be much more formidable as a candidate for mayor. I guess his consultants told him he wouldn't be able to win. But when you look at these numbers, it's hard to imagine if his name was on the ballot, he wouldn't be in first place.

00:03:49
Speaker 2: Right now, Well, and you're looking at where Karen Bass is with just twenty percent support. That almost guarantees that she's not going to win outright in June, that there will be a runoff where it's either going to be Bass Pratt or Bass Ramen, or depending on how the next couple of months ago, because the headlines are not getting any better for Karen Bass, it could be Pratt Ramen.

00:04:14
Speaker 1: Well, what Karen Bass is hoping for, based on her behavior is she wants a November matchup between her and Spencer Pratt because she's going to just try to turn that re match into a Republican versus Democrat, liberal versus conservative, female versus male matchup. What she doesn't want is a match up with Nitia Ramen because the city is extremely left wing, so I don't think a socialist would scare away most LA voters. She wouldn't be able to frame the race, however, as a Republican versus Democrat, red versus blue matchup, in which case she's probably toast well. And even right now early on, what is Karen Bass doing her campaign emails? They're going after not Spencer Pratt's politics, They're going after the fact that he was on a reality show. Well, well, all of that is going on Karen Bass is trying to spin a tail that is in no way connected with reality, and that is that Los Angeles is a safe city and she has control of the street takeovers well. And that street takeover that we talked about yesterday, the one right outside of La Live and the former Staples Center where the angry mob rushed a luxury apartment building that got a lot of coverage that she didn't necessarily want so I in all of the three and a half years that Karen Bass has been mayor, she has never once reacted to a street takeover, But all of a sudden, when one happens to destroy a luxury building, she realizes that it doesn't look good sons to crack down on street takeovers in downtown LA. For more, here's KTLA now six.

00:06:07
Speaker 5: Mayor Bass is announcing public safety changes after a mob rushed an upscale apartment building early Sunday morning.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: Notice how there was no public safety changes when the mob rushed an AutoZone.

00:06:19
Speaker 1: No, or the seven elevens, or any of the other businesses that get looted on a regular basis whenever they have one of these street takeovers. It is wild how all of a sudden, these politicians who ignore all of these problems when it's an election year. Now they're paying attention.

00:06:37
Speaker 5: Smashing glass windows and assaulting employees inside, and it was all caught on video. It is yet another example of dangerous activity in downtown Lame.

00:06:47
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you see the video, what's wild about it is the entire angry mob that is rushing the building and chasing away the security guards.

00:06:56
Speaker 1: They're all holding their phones filming all of it because no one worries about going to jail for anything in this city.

00:07:04
Speaker 6: Rachel bennataffis live at Crypto dot com arena where Mayor Bash has lighted.

00:07:07
Speaker 2: Out such a stupid name, it really is. It's gonna see the Lakers at the crypt you know.

00:07:15
Speaker 1: The only thing worse is the Honda Center in Anaheim, where the Ducks play in front of an audience of seventeen thousand people who wouldn't be caught dead in a Honda.

00:07:25
Speaker 6: Rachel benataffis live at Crypto dot com arena where Mayor Bash has lighted out her plan to ensure safety in the bustling La Live area.

00:07:32
Speaker 7: Rachel sher Micah, the chief of police, describes this as a high visibility strategy meant to deter crime.

00:07:41
Speaker 2: And oh, is bas gonna let McDonald do his job for once? No, she's gonna make it look like it poorly, but yes.

00:07:52
Speaker 7: Sher Micah, the Chief of Police, describes this as a high visibility strategy meant to deter crime and make people who live, work, and visit this popular part of downtown feel safer.

00:08:06
Speaker 1: Dozens of sounds safe to me.

00:08:10
Speaker 7: Dozens of people flooded the streets of downtown LA as drivers performed dangerous stunts. Shortly after, the rowdy crowd entered the Circa apartment buildings on FIGAROA and twelve, broke down windows and attacked the security guard in the lobby, the latest example of chaos and lawlessness, prompting city officials to crack down on safety measures in and around the luxury apartment building, LA Live, Crypto dot Com Arena, and the seventh Street Metro.

00:08:39
Speaker 2: These takeovers happen every single weekend. In fact, they happen every single weekend near the sixth Street Bridge. But now that a luxury apartment building was the target, all of a sudden, she cares and.

00:08:51
Speaker 1: How often do we cover these stories? And the tagline is zero arrests were made. Well in this story, zero arrests.

00:08:59
Speaker 7: Were men in and around the Luxury apartment building, La Live, Crypto dot Com Arena and the Seventh Street Metro between Thursday night.

00:09:08
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you've ever taken La Metro to the Seventh Street station and walked from there to the Staples Center, that is a scary walk. I did that once to a Clipper game, never again.

00:09:24
Speaker 7: Between Thursday night and Sunday morning, which are considered surge periods, LAPD will be adding ten more officers patrolling on foot, by bike and one dedicated car outside of La Live day and night.

00:09:37
Speaker 1: Additional resources are deployed to ensure continuous visibility and enforcement presence during the corridor as busy as periods.

00:09:45
Speaker 7: Regional partners like CHP will take part, also mounted units. Mayor Bass and Chief McDonald.

00:09:52
Speaker 2: I don't know if I want the mounted units involved in this. I'm afraid of what those monsters will do. The horse.

00:09:58
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully the horse is just run over the monsters.

00:10:02
Speaker 7: Regional partners like CHP will take part also mounted units. Mayor Bass and Chief McDonald say this is an effort to support the ninety thousand people who called downtown La home.

00:10:13
Speaker 2: And for the people, I wonder how many of those ninety thousand people regret that decision.

00:10:17
Speaker 1: They're all from some place else. Nobody who lives down there is from here. They're from some other place. They think that living downtown will give them some kind of city experience in southern California, And oh boy, are they in for a rude awakening.

00:10:34
Speaker 2: This is not a real city. This is not San Francisco, this is not New York. Downtown La is awful.

00:10:43
Speaker 7: And for the people working late nights who need to catch a metro bus at the end of their shift.

00:10:48
Speaker 8: Those who live here, who walk their dogs, who push strollers and come here to eat and watch a game have have to feel as though they are safe.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: The area has happen, not they need to be safe. They have to feel as if they're safe. What she's advocating for is a placebo. Well, she's not gonna do anything to crack down on this, No, because then we'd have to put people in jail, and she doesn't want to do that because Boss Castro thinks that that's a bad idea.

00:11:22
Speaker 7: The area has had a loss of anywhere from three hundred to five hundred thousand employees who opt to work from home instead of coming into town.

00:11:30
Speaker 2: Also, and that's because downtown La sucks. It's difficult to get there, and it's not safe, and there's really not that much fun stuff to do.

00:11:42
Speaker 1: It is one of the worst.

00:11:43
Speaker 2: It might be the worst downtown of any major city in the country. Well, there's a reason that the Lakers played in Inglewood and the Kings played in Inglewood for so many years. They didn't want to play downtown. Well, why has all the major sports French moves in Los Angeles been to go back to Inglewood. The Rams are in Inglewood, the Chargers are in Englewood, the Clippers are in Englewood. Reard and cleaned up downtown and that's when it became safe to go back there again. But after Dick Reardon left the office, there was a residual period where it was okay to be down there. But there's been too much time in between and now it's a hellscape.

00:12:25
Speaker 7: Also, in just over three months, city officials anticipate thousands of visitors will flock to downtown attractions while in town for the FIFA World Cup.

00:12:33
Speaker 2: You think about the eighteen boy international visitors are going to get again quite an education.

00:12:39
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you think about.

00:12:41
Speaker 9: The eighteen million visitors who come to downtown annually and the ways in which we're trying to compel them to come back again and again Internationally for our major events, we need to give the best possible experience and impression.

00:12:54
Speaker 2: See, this is why I did not agree with the city spending all that money to redo the Convention Center. It's spent all the money you want modernizing that building. If you're not going to fix the surrounding neighborhood and all of the problems with it, the conventions are going to stay in Vegas one hundred percent.

00:13:13
Speaker 7: And the mayor's also touting a ten percent decrease in homeless depths.

00:13:19
Speaker 1: Great, it's always the same story with them. It doesn't matter what kind of chaos is leading the news. Well, if you actually understood the statistics, everything is actually going in the right direction.

00:13:31
Speaker 7: Driven by fewer overdoses. Now, these statistics are still very high, but she's promising to address street homelessness as part of the enforcement too. That's the very latest in downtown LA. I'm Rachel Menotov. I'll send it back to both of you in the studio.

00:13:44
Speaker 2: There you go a very desperate Karen Bass trying to scramble as an incredibly embarrassing viral video of a street takeover in the Crown Jewel of downtown La La Live and the keate the Monster's Mob luxury apartment building. And this comes on the same day as Karen Bass is revealed to have only twenty percent support among those polled in the La mayors race.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny, don't like show at gmail dot com. And Randy, you're monitoring the mail bag. Ken Wright's in at Johnny. Don't like show at gmail dot com. Hey John, Randy. There might be ninety thousand residents in downtown LA but that's deceptive. Half of them are living on the streets. Fact check true. And Randy, if you would have listened to us on Saturdays in Fresno, that's easy to do.

00:14:53
Speaker 2: We do fifteen hours a week of this nonsense. And if you need more than the noon to three Monday through Friday show that airs in Southern California on KABC and northern California on KSFO. Well, I get some stuff for you, including the podcast of this show. If you miss any hour, search of the John Phillips Show. Wherever you get your podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe you get download all the episodes. You can also do a Google on the YouTube right Georgie Google on YouTube, you can.

00:15:25
Speaker 1: Get the KABC app.

00:15:27
Speaker 2: You can get the KSFO app, and if you need even more content than that, Saturdays at noon, we package a special edition of the Fixed California Our Replay and it airs on KMJ in Fresno, serving the entire Central Valley five eighty on the AM dial one to five point nine FM, and you can stream it at kmjanow dot com. It's the Fixed California Hour Replay Saturdays at noon on KMJ.

00:15:52
Speaker 1: Let's go to Don and Elsa Rito. Don. Hello, Yeah, how you doing.

00:15:58
Speaker 10: I think I know how we can sell the problem with bass and you know, with the cost of gas and everything, and she's trying to solve some issues and you know, like the police department what they need to do, uh, to crack down on all these idiots out there. Uh that's causing the issues at that hotel and everything. Send out the tricycle police. Then this way, uh, the custom of the department will be reduced and nothing will be done with the problems that's going on here in California.

00:16:44
Speaker 1: Well, if saying the cops on tricycles instead of sending the bad guys to jail, I guess we could just put them in the sandbox. Thank you for the call, sir. On Pilla show, eight hundred two two two five two, U is a telephone number? What eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, Los Angeles Mayor Karen bass is on the robes and one of the issues that could prevent her from winning re election is the number of people living on the streets, a number of homeless people in Los Angeles. She said combating homelessness would be her top priority. And if you live here and you look around and you, I guess, smell the city. You know that's not true. But Randy, that's not stopping her from arguing over the numbers.

00:17:36
Speaker 2: Are you claiming that LA doesn't pass the smell test?

00:17:40
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I'm saying.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: So, Karen Vass was at the ribbon cutting of a mental health center that she says is going to cut down on homelessness, and you know that she's getting desperate when she doesn't immediately try to just run away from the microphone held by Matthew Seedorf at Fox eleven, who has been avoiding for months and months and months. Let's not forget that it was Karen Bass's LAFD After Action Report PR firm that labeled Fox eleven as a negative news source. And don't talk to Gg Grassiet of Good Day La. Let's hear what Matthew Seedorf got from Karen Bass. Red it yep, let's turn that off. Let's hear what Matthew Seedorf got from Karen Bass. Here's Fox eleven tonight.

00:18:30
Speaker 11: A new mental health center is opening up in LA's Chinatown. Mayor Karen Bass was there for the ribbon cutting, believing this center is just one step that could help decrease homelessness across the city. Fox eleven is Matthew Seedorf reports from downtown La.

00:18:45
Speaker 1: Bush two three.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: Was everyone on zoloft sounds like it. This is the most low energy ribbon cutting. I've ever heard.

00:18:58
Speaker 12: Bush two three, Eli America.

00:19:03
Speaker 2: Even the cheers don't sound that excited. They're all medicated.

00:19:08
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you have to be to be participating in an event with Karen Bass? Yes, Eli Americ.

00:19:15
Speaker 12: Karen Bass cutting the ribbon to a new mental health care center in LA's China Town.

00:19:20
Speaker 13: Do you think this is gonna help with homelessness?

00:19:21
Speaker 8: Absolutely?

00:19:25
Speaker 1: Shane. Can you give her an assist? Gonna get my girl off the sidelines here?

00:19:29
Speaker 13: Do you think this is gonna help with homelessness?

00:19:31
Speaker 8: Absolutely?

00:19:34
Speaker 1: Thanks Shang.

00:19:35
Speaker 8: Absolutely, this is one of the missing thesis.

00:19:38
Speaker 12: This Fox eleven's first chance and at least four months to ask the mayor questions.

00:19:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, Karen Bass doesn't do a whole lot of no holds barred interviews. She does a lot of interviews on cable news where the host don't know anything about what's going on in Los Angeles. But you don't see her sitting down and talking to Fox eleven. You didn't even see her talk to Channel five or Channel four. She will do the occasional hit with K and X, but that barely counts as a news organization. When she ran for office the first time around, part of her framing was that she was a nice lady. She came off as being like a kindergarten teacher. But what we found out since she was elected mayor is that she has a real thin skin and she's a nasty woman.

00:20:24
Speaker 13: I couldn't agree with you more. What do you drive around La? Do you feel good about what you see?

00:20:31
Speaker 1: I love Seedorf great question.

00:20:34
Speaker 13: When you drive around La do you feel good about what you see?

00:20:37
Speaker 8: Well, of course there are still in campus there.

00:20:40
Speaker 14: We have a many more to remove, but we have removed many.

00:20:45
Speaker 1: We've been doing a great job. What are you talking about? The city is as dirty as I've ever seen it. It looks like a toilet, and now you're going to embarrass us on the world stage by bringing the Olympics here.

00:20:57
Speaker 2: There is a very simple metric or a mayor that said that she was very focused on ending street homelessness. She was very focused on getting people off the streets. Is skid Row better than it was four years ago? Worse or about the same. I don't know anyone that would say it's better.

00:21:17
Speaker 1: It's filthy.

00:21:20
Speaker 12: The conversation didn't last long.

00:21:22
Speaker 10: We shouldn't got a hot second.

00:21:24
Speaker 12: But as the mayor left. We managed to squeeze in more time on homelessness.

00:21:28
Speaker 1: This is the sex see Seedorf is a guy that didn't give up. Nope, you just have to keep asking and asking and asking.

00:21:35
Speaker 14: This is the second year in a row that street homelessness is down.

00:21:39
Speaker 13: But there's just overall a lack of trust with these numbers.

00:21:42
Speaker 2: One night.

00:21:43
Speaker 1: Yes, that's true. And again I know that we repeat this number over and over and over again. Seven homeless people die per day on the streets. So if it's going down a tick, that means she's producing six point whatever new bumps or day.

00:22:01
Speaker 14: That street homelessness is down.

00:22:03
Speaker 13: Well, there's just overall a lack of trust with these numbers.

00:22:06
Speaker 8: One.

00:22:07
Speaker 14: I understand that, but I will tell you something. It is absolutely what you see if you live on a block or you had a business where there was a large encampment and that encampment is gone and has not come back for years.

00:22:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, where exactly as that happened? Can you give us an example, give us an address, please.

00:22:25
Speaker 1: If that was going on across the city, she would be sailing to reelection. If there were neighborhoods that had big encampments and those neighborhoods have been clean in the last three years, she'd be getting more than twenty percent support in the La Mayor's race. That's one of those things you would be able to see and feel immediately. Remember back, and I think it was the nineteen eighties or the nineteen nineties when Los Angeles in particular had a massive smog problem where you would be driving in to Los Angeles on the ten Freeway or the sixty Freeway, and you'd be driving along the San Gabriel Mountains and you would see this brown haze. You wouldn't even be able to see the buildings of downtown LA because there was so much smog. And then they passed the Clean Air Act. I think it was George H. W. Bush who was president at the time, and you noticed the results almost immediately. You would be driving into town and it's like, oh, look, there are big buildings in downtown.

00:23:37
Speaker 12: Elia's Homeless Services Authority reports homelessness has dropped two years in a row.

00:23:42
Speaker 2: And this is the same homeless services authority that has failed audit after audit after audit and has no idea where millions of dollars went, and didn't her buddy run it who she made a big deal out of her being a doctor. Doctor yes, doctor Valicia Adams Kellum, formerly the Saint Joseph Center at Crooked nonprofit in the Venice area. She was paid four hundred and thirty five thousand dollars a year as Karen Bass's handpicked a point D to run the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. She had to resign in shame after settling whistleblower complaints that include some kind of harassment that went on in Washington, DC, and of course, writing checks to her husband's nonprofit from LASA.

00:24:26
Speaker 12: All recent aut had raised serious concerns about transparency and questions about how billions of dollars are being spent.

00:24:33
Speaker 13: Hey offered you shelter at all?

00:24:34
Speaker 12: Or yeah?

00:24:35
Speaker 10: I refuse it?

00:24:36
Speaker 1: Why is that?

00:24:37
Speaker 7: I don't like shelters to me bed bugs?

00:24:42
Speaker 1: But the problem is the high cost of housing. You see.

00:24:45
Speaker 2: I don't ever want to stereotype people. But you can just tell by someone's voice that they're on math.

00:24:52
Speaker 1: Oh that is definitely meth voice.

00:24:55
Speaker 13: Yeah, I refuse it.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: Why's that people who don't do math don't sound like that?

00:25:02
Speaker 1: No, they don't.

00:25:03
Speaker 13: Yeah, I refuse it.

00:25:04
Speaker 7: Why is that I don't like shelters, do me bed bugs beside safety made a lot of money for the city in using underutilized hotels to spend a third of a billion dollars, and most.

00:25:16
Speaker 13: Of us are back when we started.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: If you couldn't hear that, this homeless person says, hey, Karen Bass sent over half a billion dollars and most of us are back where we started. Good job, Karen, because putting people indefinitely in motels did not solve the problem. And even the people that she has put in the motels as a tiny percentage of the people that are on the streets every single day, which is why your average citizen of Los Angeles does not feel this change that Karen Bass said happened.

00:25:51
Speaker 13: Well, also should get more money.

00:25:53
Speaker 14: Uh No, The question is we have to make sure that the system runs better.

00:25:58
Speaker 8: There's a lot of problems with the system.

00:26:00
Speaker 1: And you've been in charge of it. And she acts like she's a writer in the letters to the editor section of the newspaper.

00:26:07
Speaker 2: In fact, she has resisted audits of that she doesn't want the city council to have any control over where that spending goes. Where we are spending and this is true thanks to Monica Rodriguez the La City Council seventeen thousand dollars per person per month to stay in one of those motels. That's how much money we are wasting on Inside Safe.

00:26:31
Speaker 1: That is Minnesota level theft.

00:26:36
Speaker 2: And it's been three and a half years since this program started. So you would think at this point wouldn't Karen Bass's reelection campaign be full of testimony of people that say, Hey, I went into Inside Safe and I got my life together and now I'm an upstanding citizen. As far as I know, there are zero of those people.

00:26:55
Speaker 8: There's a lot of problems with the system. We have to address that.

00:27:00
Speaker 1: When are you gonna do that? Oh, that's why she needs four more years.

00:27:05
Speaker 12: The mayor insists progress is being made as political pressure builds.

00:27:09
Speaker 8: Well, there's a lot of things that we can do.

00:27:12
Speaker 14: Are doing much more to do.

00:27:15
Speaker 12: The primary election now less than three months away.

00:27:18
Speaker 13: How would you grade so far as mayor?

00:27:20
Speaker 8: Thank you?

00:27:20
Speaker 10: How was you as mayor?

00:27:23
Speaker 2: She didn't want to answer that one, of course, would you like to answer it for him? Well, she could have one of her professors do it for her, because she didn't she get one of those phony Bologny master's degrees from USC. Yes, it's a bizarre story. But if you don't remember this, because this did come out at the time of the twenty twenty two election, but still people chose her over Rick Caruso. The same exact school of Social Work at USC that Mark Ridley Thomas got busted for funneling money through to his son's nonprofit also gave Karen Bass it's an honorary degree.

00:28:03
Speaker 1: And she talks about having a master's degree in social work all the time.

00:28:07
Speaker 12: Since before Christmas, we've been asking Marivaths for a one on one sit down interviewed to go over a long list of topics. We're going to continue putting in those requests. Reporting in Downtown La Matthew Sedor, Fox eleven.

00:28:18
Speaker 2: News, Maddie, I love you. I don't think she's going to sit down with you.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: By the way, I don't think that was an honorary degree. I think she claims that she completed the courses over the computer. Oh boy, I wonder how rigorous those were. Let's go to lesson Pasadena less. Hello.

00:28:38
Speaker 15: Yes, I wanted to tell you and Randy that last month I was assaulted by a homeless man at Union Station as I made my way up the stairs and the security officer who had a gun at the top of the stairs, ignored me because he was too busy a texting. And on Tuesday, I boarded the Metro at the Allen station only to encounter a man passed out on the floor of the car. On Thursday, I boarded the last train, the car of the last car of the train that is at Union Station, only to see a man hunched over in a chair with a hypodermic needle stuck in his arm. And on Friday night, I returned to the Allen station, where I stepped over a man passed out in the elevator. I decided that the Karen Bass Memorial Metro serves as a drunk tank, flophouse and shooting gallery. Transportation is second. But here's the kicker. Last night, I attended a Glendale City Council meeting and demanded that they tell the Southern California Railroad Authority to remove a homeless encampment under the freeway bridge between the Glendale Station and Union Station. This dangerous and illegal encampment is on the railroad right of way and spills over onto a spur track that's used by Union Pacific. Well, this is the Karen Bass Memorial metro for you, and the state of homeless does here in Los Angeles.

00:30:12
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for the call. And they want all of us to take those trains, which is why they have road diets, which is why they don't repair our failing roads, which is why they're not requiring developers to include parking and new build. This is what they want us to do. They want us to be in dangerous situations all the time, in confined, split spaces like a train. Let's go to Jonathan and West La Jonathan.

00:30:40
Speaker 4: Hello, Hi John and Randy. My basic question is what is the difference in amount of money that they spent on just the funding to house somebody in a hotel, and then was it two or three times more to repair the hotel after they, you know, sued the city for the damage that was done by the homeless person that they put in there. Do you guys have any ball park figures or percentages on how much more was spent to repair the place.

00:31:12
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you this based on what we know about a program very similar during COVID in San Francisco, the Project Room Key and the Project Home Key where they decided to take all the homeless and shove them into motels. The city of San Francisco was on the hook for over four hundred million dollars in repairs to those motels.

00:31:33
Speaker 4: So was that more than they spent to put them in? And what is the difference, Like, did they spend one hundred hundred million to get them in or one hundred thousand and then they got to spend another three hundred and twenty thousand to repair the place. So it's actually whatever they say that they're spending isn't true. Numbers that's where they well I.

00:31:53
Speaker 1: Don't have the exact numbers in front of me. I can tell you this. It was so bad Tom Bodett turned the light.

00:31:59
Speaker 4: Off for them, right right right, yeah, Well the thing all right, Thank you.

00:32:05
Speaker 1: For the call, Sir. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. Coming up after the News at one, it's the Fixed California hour, and we're gonna check in with independent journalist JJ Smith, who recently filmed on the streets of San Francisco and the illegal ballot signature scheme. This is a scheme where homeless people are being paid to sign petitions trying to get legislation on the ballot. You're not supposed to be paid to do something like that. I guess you can be paid to collect the signatures, but you can't pay someone directly for their signature. But that's in fact what's being done on the streets of San Francisco.

00:33:01
Speaker 2: Well, it's worse than that because they're not even using their own names. What they were doing was they had a table and a line all the way down the block on the Tenderloin where you had people, homeless people getting paid five dollars to look at a list of voter registration information, write down somebody else's name, somebody else's address, and sign their signature.

00:33:25
Speaker 1: It was straight up fraud. Yeah, that is illegal on so many different levels, and of course it is going on on the streets of San Francisco. We now have the proof with the videos. According to everything that I've seen in the state of California has now contacted JJ about what he was able to record. But all this leads to the question, Okay, what happens when these ballots go out in the mail and the same sort of scheming is going on. Can you even trust an election where this type of fraud takes place in broad daylight and nobody seems to care how many things.

00:34:02
Speaker 2: Have qualified for the ballot with this kind of practice. And by the way, it's pretty funny. One of the ballot initiatives that the firm that was collecting the signature was going towards was the anti wealth tax initiative that would ban a wealth tax. So the billionaires apparently were hiring a really crooked firm to collect those signatures.

00:34:24
Speaker 1: Well, what you do is you go to a firm and the firms just do how business is done in California. Because the firms don't care which side they're collecting signatures for. They just want to be paid for the signatures. So I'm sure that anyone who goes to one of these crooked organizations looking to get something on the ballot, that's something akin to this is going on. But what goes on in November? What goes on when these ballots go out in the mail, because it's not as if these organizations just go away.

00:34:57
Speaker 2: It's all starting to make sense now why every two years we have to vote on kidney bills.

00:35:05
Speaker 1: Well, there are certain things that just make no sense. People just cannot believe that certain results happen in the state. And yeah, the state's pretty left wing, and you talk to a lot of people and they subscribe to a lot of what's coming out of Sacramento. But who out there is signing these initiatives for the kidney bills, for example, But you just brought up I don't know anyone, whether they be Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever, who can't wait to get to the Thanksgiving table to start pounding their fists on the table to yell about kidneys. Yet these initiatives qualify for the ballot. It seems like every cycle, and sometimes multiple bills, multiple initiatives. I'm telling you, this has been standard practice for a really long time. And now JJ has it on video of exactly what is going on, paying homeless people to impersonate you on signing a petition