Speaker 1: Well, the city council might only give you sixty seconds
Speaker 1: to where your grievance is.
Speaker 2: Oh hi, i'd like to start go to the first
Speaker 2: caller on the phone.
Speaker 1: Well, if you're lucky, now we're giving you a both
Speaker 1: sixty minutes. It's a KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 1: and our long recap of the day's top local stories
Speaker 1: on your drive home. And unlike the city Council, we're
Speaker 1: the perfect vehicle to actually get your voice heard. The
Speaker 1: KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang starts no, No, no No.
Speaker 2: It is the News Blitz with Randy Wang on talk
Speaker 2: radio seven to ninety KABC. This is your daily rundown
Speaker 2: of everything you need to know that's going on in
Speaker 2: Southern California as well as the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego,
Speaker 2: and the Central Valley. I curate a list of all
Speaker 2: the stories that I found interesting that you may have
Speaker 2: missed at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. You can put
Speaker 2: in your email and subscribe for free, and then it
Speaker 2: just goes to your mailbox whenever I post it. You know,
Speaker 2: also check out my YouTube channel at randywangradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Send me an email at Randywang Radio at gmail dot
Speaker 2: com and give us a call if you want eight
Speaker 2: hundred two two two five two two two. We start
Speaker 2: in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles with some good news.
Speaker 2: Not that often we get to start with good news.
Speaker 2: But after weeks and weeks and weeks of prolonged sweeps
Speaker 2: in a combination task force of the LAPD and the
Speaker 2: DEA and sometimes the FBI and all different kinds of
Speaker 2: federal agencies, MacArthur Park, known as the drug den of
Speaker 2: the drug den that is Los Angeles, has gotten just
Speaker 2: a little bit cleaner, has gotten just a little bit safer,
Speaker 2: and that is fantastic. It is shocking how a little
Speaker 2: enforcement can completely change the situation that is going on
Speaker 2: in this park. So for a very long time you
Speaker 2: heard complaints from people like Norm Langer of Langer's Deli
Speaker 2: that the situation going on in MacArthur Park was just
Speaker 2: completely unacceptable and he was threatening to leave. He did
Speaker 2: not because Karen bassiating this. He said, we're going to
Speaker 2: do something about it, but they really didn't. And remember,
Speaker 2: while MacArthur Park has been a problem area for a
Speaker 2: very long time, it used to be the not so
Speaker 2: secret secret that that's where you go to get stolen
Speaker 2: social security number. It really exploded into the open air
Speaker 2: drug den when La Metro got so embarrassed by local
Speaker 2: news reporting from CBSLA and other outlets about the open
Speaker 2: air drug market that was the MacArthur Park Metro station,
Speaker 2: and so a few years ago they decided to start
Speaker 2: blasting classical music, which certain members of the city council
Speaker 2: called torture unisses. They started shining very very very bright lights,
Speaker 2: controlling the entrances and exits, and now that is a
Speaker 2: very safe station. But that open air drug market didn't disappear.
Speaker 2: It went into the park itself, and for a long time,
Speaker 2: MacArthur Park was the City of LA's very own Hamsterdam.
Speaker 2: If you've never heard the term Hamsterdam, you need to
Speaker 2: take this weekend and if you've got HBO or it
Speaker 2: might even be on Netflix too. Watch The Wire, one
Speaker 2: of the greatest television shows ever made, a show that
Speaker 2: they actually study in college for real reasons, and specifically
Speaker 2: the third season where a police chief or a police
Speaker 2: lieutenant is very, very very sick of having his officers
Speaker 2: getting assaulted or shot at or murdered because of all
Speaker 2: the takedowns that they're doing all the small rippin' raids.
Speaker 2: They're trying to go after the drug markets that are
Speaker 2: in Baltimore, and they decide, what if we take a
Speaker 2: certain corner of the city and we just push all
Speaker 2: the drug dealing there, and push all the homeless there,
Speaker 2: and you guys can just do whatever you want, but
Speaker 2: only here. The rest of the city we're going to
Speaker 2: really beef up patrols. But if you do it in Hamsterdam,
Speaker 2: you can do whatever you want. And well, while that
Speaker 2: sounds like an insane idea, once the big wigs got
Speaker 2: a hold of it, they saw noticeable double digits drops
Speaker 2: in crime everywhere but Hamsterdam, and for just a moment
Speaker 2: start to consider, maybe this is what we should do.
Speaker 2: So I always thought of a Arthur Park like that,
Speaker 2: this is where we push all the problem and we
Speaker 2: know we're not going to enforce it. But MacArthur Park
Speaker 2: started getting national attention when there was that big raid
Speaker 2: in MacArthur Park in June related to the immigration raids,
Speaker 2: and Karen Bass runs down there and says, call off
Speaker 2: your goons and starts having all these press conferences about
Speaker 2: what a safe park this is for your kids. Gavin
Speaker 2: Newsom talks about what a great park this is. But
Speaker 2: for the people in the know, we've known how much
Speaker 2: of a disaster this park is for a very long time.
Speaker 2: But a few months ago we started to see instead
Speaker 2: of the opposition that we hear so much about how
Speaker 2: we're so opposed to working with the federal government. And
Speaker 2: I don't care who's in charge of the federal government,
Speaker 2: we should all be on the same page that drug dealing,
Speaker 2: dealing fentanyl unacceptable, doing fentanyl unacceptable, and all the other
Speaker 2: crimes and the gang murders and everything else that goes
Speaker 2: on in that park unacceptable. So a few months ago
Speaker 2: there was a big raid and you saw at the
Speaker 2: press conference Bill is Saley and Jim McDonell, and I
Speaker 2: think mister Hawkman was there as well. Everyone's saying we're
Speaker 2: going to make a concerted effort. In fact, I remember
Speaker 2: Nathan Hackman making a promise he was going to clean
Speaker 2: up MacArthur Park and then go there and have a
Speaker 2: picnic on Labor Day. He ended up having a picnic
Speaker 2: there on Independence Day when there was like a big festival.
Speaker 2: So there was a lot of you know, presence of security,
Speaker 2: what have you. But lovely idea very sweet idea, So
Speaker 2: that was probably just going to be a one off,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't. Two weeks later, they came back. They
Speaker 2: did another sweep unannounced. Sometimes they were sweeping the dealers,
Speaker 2: sometimes they were sweeping the users. A couple weeks later,
Speaker 2: another sweep, a couple weeks later, another sweep, and there
Speaker 2: has been this consistent effort, multi agency, local and federal.
Speaker 2: Don't think the state's involved. I don't know what that's about.
Speaker 2: Going after the very well known criminal element in there,
Speaker 2: and that includes the drug dealers, that includes the drug users.
Speaker 2: And while things still have a long way to go
Speaker 2: for improvement, CBSLA took a camera crew out there and
Speaker 2: they saw something that you don't usually see. People feeling
Speaker 2: a little safer to bring their kids to MacArthur Park.
Speaker 2: People feeling a little safer to walk around and enjoy
Speaker 2: the recreation at MacArthur Park because we have started to
Speaker 2: enforce the law. It's wild, how insane of a concept
Speaker 2: this is. But the parks belong to the peace. And
Speaker 2: I don't care what your story is and that you're homeless,
Speaker 2: you should not be allowed to be doing fentanyl in
Speaker 2: a public park. And if that's the case, the answer
Speaker 2: cannot be well, we're just going to let you do
Speaker 2: it till you overdose and then we're going to revive
Speaker 2: you and then we're going to leave you here. That's
Speaker 2: not working for anybody, you know. I think we need
Speaker 2: to look to other cities to see what they're doing.
Speaker 2: Look what San Jose's been doing, where you are offered treatment,
Speaker 2: you are offered housing. If you refuse it, well, now
Speaker 2: you're impeding on public space. You got to go. You're
Speaker 2: going to jail or get the hell out of this city.
Speaker 2: We've got to do something to break that cycle of addiction.
Speaker 2: But we all have to be on the same page
Speaker 2: that fentinyl use and meth use is unacceptable. And right
Speaker 2: now we're not on the same page because do you
Speaker 2: know what else is going on at the same time,
Speaker 2: you have this big, concerted effort from LAPD finally being
Speaker 2: allowed to do their jobs because it's an election year,
Speaker 2: the federal government, the prosecutor's office. At the same time
Speaker 2: that all of that is going on, Unices Hernandez, the
Speaker 2: La City council woman who represents MacArthur Park, is trying
Speaker 2: to take credit for the cleanup by crediting all of
Speaker 2: her efforts in the park. She says, the moves and
Speaker 2: the raids from the Feds and the cops have nothing
Speaker 2: to do with the improvement of the conditions of the park.
Speaker 2: The improvement of the conditions of the park you can
Speaker 2: trace back to my street ambassadors and my street medicine
Speaker 2: teams and all of these other NGOs and nonprofits that
Speaker 2: she has given city money to to make mone by
Speaker 2: hanging out in the park. And she claims that these
Speaker 2: are the organizations that are the real reason why the
Speaker 2: drug problem is starting to go down there. And I
Speaker 2: think we can all safely say that that is a
Speaker 2: bunch of bull. You know what. I remember that press conference.
Speaker 2: It didn't get nearly as much attention as it should
Speaker 2: have because it happened at the end of December twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, and by January twenty twenty five, the fire started.
Speaker 2: In fact, I remember this very well. My first show
Speaker 2: back from Christmas vacation in twenty twenty five, I played
Speaker 2: that press conference of Unisses Hernandez talking about the hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars she was giving to all these
Speaker 2: different nonprofits to help out the situation in the park,
Speaker 2: and it was wild. She just kept listing ngo after NGO,
Speaker 2: organization after organization getting government money to help the humanitarian crisis,
Speaker 2: and in exchange for a future endorsement, Karen Bass was
Speaker 2: funding Unisses' little adventure. Well, we covered that on January sixth,
Speaker 2: and then January seventh, the fire started, so that story
Speaker 2: just kind of went to the back burner. But over
Speaker 2: the last year and a half we have had some
Speaker 2: very interesting developments with Unisses, Hernandez and the NGOs that
Speaker 2: she claims are the ones that really solving the problem
Speaker 2: in MacArthur Park. For one, one of those organizations is
Speaker 2: Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles, an organization that just got a
Speaker 2: big shout out from the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Speaker 2: Development for the federal government, Scott Turner, because this is
Speaker 2: the organization that gets paid in places like skid Row
Speaker 2: and In and MacArthur Park to pass out drug paraphernalia.
Speaker 2: They literally drive around in little golf carts and are
Speaker 2: passing out pipes and needles and foil and spoons and
Speaker 2: straws and as much weird experimenting as I did in
Speaker 2: my twenties. I don't know what the foil and the
Speaker 2: spoon is for. We pass out all that stuff. We
Speaker 2: literally make it easier for people to do the drugs.
Speaker 2: We have needle distribution services out there, not needle exchange services,
Speaker 2: needle distribution services. And one of the things that was
Speaker 2: discovered during all of these raids that have been happening
Speaker 2: from the FBI, from Bill is Saley, from Nathan Hockman
Speaker 2: and the LAPD is quite a few times some of
Speaker 2: the people that were getting arrested worked for some of
Speaker 2: these NGOs, some of these nonprofits, some of the cogs
Speaker 2: and the homeless industrial complex in Los Angeles, including one
Speaker 2: guy who and don't quote me on this, I believe
Speaker 2: he worked for Healing Urban Barrios as an ambassador, and
Speaker 2: he was arrested for having even though he was supposed
Speaker 2: to be an ex gang member, having known gang member
Speaker 2: ties and may have been an active gang member, which
Speaker 2: shouldn't be too surprising. Let's not forget that the city
Speaker 2: of Los Angeles was paying a nonprofit for over a decade.
Speaker 2: So this was a Karen Bass thing, a Garcetti thing,
Speaker 2: and an Antonio Viragosa thing for a nonprofit that was
Speaker 2: supposed to steer kids away from the gang life. And
Speaker 2: it turns out that this youth football program was actually
Speaker 2: a front for a real life criminal gang. There was
Speaker 2: somebody who was supposed to be one of these needle
Speaker 2: exchangers working for one of the nonprofits I believe it
Speaker 2: was for path AKA people assisting the homeless, and this
Speaker 2: person who was doing needle exchange in MacArthur Park was
Speaker 2: arrested for you guessed it, selling drugs in MacArthur Park.
Speaker 2: So unsses Hernandez can say all that she wants that
Speaker 2: what's really starting to push MacArthur Park in the right
Speaker 2: direction is all of her efforts and her programs. It
Speaker 2: seems like to me it's the enforcement that is changing
Speaker 2: the game in MacArthur Park. There's still a lot of
Speaker 2: work to do, but of anything, all the programs that
Speaker 2: Unisses put in there only exacerbated the problem because we
Speaker 2: still have people in elected office with the ideology that
Speaker 2: we need to meet people where they are, including when
Speaker 2: they are folded over on fentanyl, and offer them more
Speaker 2: drugs and make doing drugs easier so they'll trust us.
Speaker 2: And when they decide, even though they're not in their
Speaker 2: right mind and they've lost their mind to get clean,
Speaker 2: they'll do it with us. It is an insane ideology.
Speaker 2: But you know what, ultimately, the residents of Council District one,
Speaker 2: Highland Park, MacArthur Park, what have you. They have had
Speaker 2: four years of unices Hernandez and they outright voted her
Speaker 2: in the primary to stick around. So they must like
Speaker 2: what they're getting. It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 2: on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. Last night, I was
Speaker 2: lucky enough to be invited by our friends at the
Speaker 2: Pantagious Theater in Broadway and Hollywood for opening night of
Speaker 2: Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It is playing now through
Speaker 2: September sixth, and you've got to go. This is a
Speaker 2: I've seen Beauty in the Beast on stage many times.
Speaker 2: This is one of the better productions I've ever seen
Speaker 2: of it. The costumes are solid, the performances are great,
Speaker 2: the choreography is very creative and a little different than
Speaker 2: I have seen in the past. And of course it
Speaker 2: is the tale as old as time. You know, I
Speaker 2: have a very special connection to specifically Beauty and the
Speaker 2: Beast on stage at the Pantagious Theater, because when I
Speaker 2: was going through a very strange time in my life
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, If you know my history, you know it
Speaker 2: was a weird year and I felt kind of lost.
Speaker 2: I would just got done with my weird party scene
Speaker 2: and go into raves and stuff, and you know, I was.
Speaker 2: I was trying to live a different kind of life.
Speaker 2: And a friend of mine invited me to go with
Speaker 2: her to see Beauty and the Beast at the Pantagious Theater.
Speaker 2: I had never been to a musical as an adult,
Speaker 2: didn't think that was my thing. And of course I
Speaker 2: knew the show. It was one of my favorite Disney
Speaker 2: movies growing up as a kid. I have distinct memories
Speaker 2: of that big clamshell VHS case that it used to
Speaker 2: come in and watching it on repeat over and over
Speaker 2: and over again, because that's what little kids do. But
Speaker 2: seeing it on stage, seeing the music saying, you know,
Speaker 2: listening to all of the songs that are only on
Speaker 2: the stage production that for some reason they didn't put
Speaker 2: in the movie remake even though they're fantastic, like if
Speaker 2: I can't Love Her. It was a and I use
Speaker 2: this term a lot back then, but it was a
Speaker 2: life changing experience because it exposed me to the natural
Speaker 2: high and the magic and the majesty of live theater
Speaker 2: and watching singing and dancing and all of this incredible
Speaker 2: stuff going on with the story that I knew very well,
Speaker 2: and it was very powerful, And I think that might
Speaker 2: be some of the reasons why, even though I have
Speaker 2: seen this story so many times and it's not necessarily
Speaker 2: a sad story, I kept like crying throughout the thing,
Speaker 2: like not a lot, but maybe just because it's so beautiful.
Speaker 2: But it was a really great time. I had a
Speaker 2: lot of fun seeing it last night with my wife,
Speaker 2: and we love the Pantagious Theater. I always love to
Speaker 2: give a little tip. If you get there early enough,
Speaker 2: there's a parking lot on Argyle and it's right behind
Speaker 2: the theater. It costs you a little more, but you'll
Speaker 2: get in and out right away. Not only that, make
Speaker 2: sure you get a cocktail at the bar, which now
Speaker 2: they give you sippy cups. You could take your drinks
Speaker 2: into the theater. They didn't used to let you do that.
Speaker 2: And the thing you gotta do is order your drinks
Speaker 2: and then pre order your drinks for intermission, so when
Speaker 2: intermission happens, you can run to the bathroom and then
Speaker 2: go over to the bar and you've already got your
Speaker 2: second round. Ready to go. But I had a blast.
Speaker 2: It was a great show and it's playing through September six.
Speaker 2: So bring your wife, bring your kids, bring the whole family.
Speaker 2: Broadwayanhollywood dot Com go see Beauty and the Beast. This
Speaker 2: is a wonderful production here for the next few weeks.
Speaker 2: All right, this is a very i would say, a
Speaker 2: very California story. But there are instances of this all
Speaker 2: across government, local government, state government, and even our current
Speaker 2: federal government. But for the most part, let's talk about
Speaker 2: something insane in local government. How exactly did a fence
Speaker 2: to protect a public library in Long Beach cost seven
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars? How is that possible for a fence?
Speaker 2: Why is it things that you kind of assume what
Speaker 2: they would cost. When you get through the government bidding process,
Speaker 2: whether there is a bid or a no bid, we
Speaker 2: get to insane numbers for things that should be so simple.
Speaker 2: A chain li fence to keep out the homeless from
Speaker 2: a library costs seven hundred grand. How is that possible?
Speaker 2: Let's find out. Here's NBCLA.
Speaker 1: It is one of the.
Speaker 3: Most controversial projects in Long Beach, A fence around the
Speaker 3: Billy Jean King Maine Library. According to the city, the
Speaker 3: fence was needed to keep the area safe and clear
Speaker 3: of homeless encampments. It costs taxpayers almost eight hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: For a fence, because you know, we can't just arrest
Speaker 2: the homeless that are doing things they're not supposed to
Speaker 2: outside the library or in the library. We need to
Speaker 2: build a massive fence that costs nearly eight hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: A public record is obtained by NBC four investigates show
Speaker 3: the documented cost to build the fence was significantly less.
Speaker 3: In NBC four's McCallum medinos following the money, the city.
Speaker 4: At Longbe says it's spent nearly seven hundred and ninety
Speaker 4: thousand dollars on this fence behind me.
Speaker 2: But these records, well, I'm seeing the fence on the
Speaker 2: video here from NBC four, and you can check out
Speaker 2: this video at Randy Wangradio dot substack dot com or
Speaker 2: go to nbcla's YouTube page. It doesn't look that fancy,
Speaker 2: you know what. It kind of looks like it kind
Speaker 2: of looks like the same material that my dog's crate
Speaker 2: is made of. You know, it looks like it's just
Speaker 2: metal bars and there's probably some doors. You know, what
Speaker 2: they should have done is they should have just called
Speaker 2: the people that make those crates and have them make
Speaker 2: a really big one.
Speaker 4: It's obtained by NBC four investigator show building the fence, labor, construction,
Speaker 4: and materials actually costs half that price.
Speaker 2: So where did even four hundred thousand dollars seems a
Speaker 2: lot for a fence.
Speaker 4: Hundreds of thousands of dollars go? Well, that is a
Speaker 4: question a lot of neighbors are asking, as they plead
Speaker 4: with the city now to keep library services open.
Speaker 2: By the way, this is in downtown Long Beach, which
Speaker 2: is just one of the most beautifull parts of the county.
Speaker 2: We've been lucky enough to do a lot of events
Speaker 2: there with our friends at Gladstone's, and we're doing another
Speaker 2: one in October. Um that fence is hella ugly and
Speaker 2: I'm just.
Speaker 5: Asking you please don't cut our hours and don't cut
Speaker 5: our home please.
Speaker 4: Wan Beach neighbor Emerly Quest says the library is a
Speaker 4: critical safe space for her and others.
Speaker 1: We're not asking for a lot.
Speaker 4: A city leader's debate where to cut spending, NBC four
Speaker 4: investigates took a closer look at one of the city's
Speaker 4: biggest recent library expenses, the downtown Billy Jing King Library fence.
Speaker 4: The city says it was installed to create a safer
Speaker 4: space for events on an outdoor terrace often crowded with
Speaker 4: homeless encampments.
Speaker 2: Come on, Rex, what are you doing here? Instead of
Speaker 2: clearing the encampments, We've got to build a giant fence
Speaker 2: to keep the encampments out. And the fence cost over
Speaker 2: half a million dollars.
Speaker 4: Prize take to taxpayers seven hundred and ninety thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: When the fence opened up back in May, one question
Speaker 4: immediately stood out.
Speaker 2: We asked it, this is a metal fence that I
Speaker 2: swear I'm gonna say it again. It looks like a
Speaker 2: dog crate.
Speaker 6: You manage your tom MODI. There could have been a
Speaker 6: cheaper way to do this.
Speaker 5: I don't think so.
Speaker 6: This is no.
Speaker 5: This is the This is we You know, we pay
Speaker 5: a lot of attention to that we do this as
Speaker 5: cost effectively as possible.
Speaker 2: I don't know about that. I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: and sometimes it's just sheer incompetence or we don't care
Speaker 2: because it's not our money, it's your money, or who
Speaker 2: got the contract, who got the bid, Who got all
Speaker 2: of this money to do a very simple job. It
Speaker 2: doesn't even look like that heavy of a material for
Speaker 2: a fence. It's just metal bars. Did I mention it's
Speaker 2: hella ugly.
Speaker 6: Rox Richardson defended the price too.
Speaker 1: These are not normal fences you can put up in
Speaker 1: your house. They have to be able to open up
Speaker 1: if there's an emergency or.
Speaker 2: You mean, so the fence has to have a door
Speaker 2: like once again, my dog crate.
Speaker 6: Fire.
Speaker 1: This is not your typical face.
Speaker 2: This guy is uniquely terrible. There's a lot of terrible
Speaker 2: mayors in Los Angeles County, Karen Bass being the worst
Speaker 2: of them, but Rex Richardson is pretty damn awful.
Speaker 1: We have to make sure that everything is safe and
Speaker 1: design well, so that's all I have to say on that.
Speaker 6: So we followed the money the record.
Speaker 2: They must hate McCallum Medina because he's like the beat
Speaker 2: reporter for Long Beach. He does so much stuff in
Speaker 2: Long Beach and most other places. They don't have the
Speaker 2: staffing to cover all these other cities that are not
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, but Long Beach is a big city.
Speaker 4: The NBC four investigates obtained through a public records request,
Speaker 4: show quality fence out of paramount was hired.
Speaker 2: What a name quality fence company?
Speaker 4: Huh to build two hundred and sixty one feet of
Speaker 4: galvani still fencing with eight swing gates or doors.
Speaker 2: Okay, do you think if I typed into Google Gemini,
Speaker 2: how much would it cost for two hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: one square feet of fence, we'd get a different price.
Speaker 2: Let's just try that. Let's go to my my favorite
Speaker 2: AI assistant, Google Gemini, that I used to make all
Speaker 2: those silly AI images. I'm going to say, what do
Speaker 2: you think it would cost for two hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: one square feet of secure fencing around a building? Let's
Speaker 2: just see what the robot thinks about how much we
Speaker 2: spent in Long Beach for a fence surrounding the library.
Speaker 2: It is thinking, it is clarifying its dimensions, it is
Speaker 2: estimating the cost, precisely, defining the enclosure cost, determining the
Speaker 2: price structure, calculating the enclosure estimates. It's so weird how
Speaker 2: it comes up with all these things automatically, How it's thinking.
Speaker 2: We are truly in the age of the future, and
Speaker 2: it is a strange one. It's calculating the total I
Speaker 2: have the pro so it takes a minute. If you
Speaker 2: met two hundred and sixty one linear feet of perimeter,
Speaker 2: the cost breakdown would be between thirty nine hundred and
Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars. So how did we get to seven
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety thousand dollars? The robot could do it
Speaker 2: for one percent of that. Now, this isn't an accurate science,
Speaker 2: but I think even if you don't have a construction
Speaker 2: or a contractor background, an eight hundred thousand dollars fence
Speaker 2: is insane. And to tell us that, oh it was
Speaker 2: really only four hundred thousand dollars, that's still insane.
Speaker 4: Riginal contract was about three hundred and ninety eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: A later change order increased the height and that increased
Speaker 4: the price to roughly four hundred and nineteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: So what accounts for the remaining three hundred and seventy
Speaker 4: one thousand, four hundred and thirty six dollars and eighty cents.
Speaker 5: When we report out on those costs, it's an all
Speaker 5: in cost, not just the construction cost. So it's design,
Speaker 5: the planning, the permitting.
Speaker 2: The design. Did I mention it looks like a dog
Speaker 2: crate the technology.
Speaker 4: NBC four investigates asked the city to specifically document what
Speaker 4: those additional costs were. The city says additional records will
Speaker 4: be released by October thirtieth as our public records request
Speaker 4: is completed. The records also show the city didn't seek
Speaker 4: separate bids for the fence portion of this project.
Speaker 2: Okay, so once again we have a no bid that
Speaker 2: we've seen all kinds of graft going on with you
Speaker 2: want to tell Gavin Newsom in the diaper contract, whether
Speaker 2: you want to talk about the federal government and a
Speaker 2: lot of these defence contracts that have been going around,
Speaker 2: or the no big contract for the stupid reflecting pool. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this does not pass the smell test for me. I
Speaker 2: don't think it passed the smell test for you.
Speaker 4: Records show the city used quality fence under an existing
Speaker 4: citywide fencing contract rather than a new contract specifically for
Speaker 4: the library fence. Today, the city says the investment is
Speaker 4: paid off. Officials report Library Code of Conduct incidences are
Speaker 4: down forty six percent.
Speaker 2: Patres, Well, that's all great because you now have a
Speaker 2: fence to keep out the homeless. Because you couldn't just
Speaker 2: show them away. But the fence cost eight hundred thousand
Speaker 2: dollars and nobody blinks for.
Speaker 6: In suspensions down fifty.
Speaker 2: You know, cities like Long Beach, cities like Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: they're all facing budget deficits. Who approves this kind of stuff?
Speaker 6: Eight percent?
Speaker 4: And terrasts maintenance costs expected to drop about seventy thousand
Speaker 4: dollars a year because crews, they say, will no longer
Speaker 4: have to power wants to terraces as often.
Speaker 2: All right, so over time, this fence that costs nearly
Speaker 2: eight hundred thousand dollars is actually going to pay for
Speaker 2: itself because they spave seventy thousand dollars a year in
Speaker 2: power washing all the pootpo that was in front of
Speaker 2: the library. Wow. Wow Wow.
Speaker 4: The city's own Homeless Services Advisory Committee calls the project
Speaker 4: a missed opportunity and this letter. Committee members wrote to
Speaker 4: city leaders saying that the nearly eight hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 4: fencing project ai'lls to center a commitment to for shelter.
Speaker 2: We could have taken that eight hundred thousand dollars and
Speaker 2: built one unit of housing with it. This is also stupid, I.
Speaker 4: Mean the same amount of money would have sheltered a
Speaker 4: minimum of ten people a year. The city responded that
Speaker 4: the fencing project did not disrupt services or resources offered
Speaker 4: through the Homeless Services Bureau.
Speaker 2: By the way, in the shot that they have of
Speaker 2: the library just outside of the fence, yeah there's a
Speaker 2: shopping cart, all RIGHTBC.
Speaker 4: Four is continuing to request more documents connected with the
Speaker 4: costs of this fence. Once we get them, we'll share
Speaker 4: that with you. In downtown Long Beach, Mccallumundina.
Speaker 2: NBC four News. It is a complete iesore, by the way,
Speaker 2: and again one of the most beautiful parts of southern California,
Speaker 2: downtown Long Beach. This fence is hideous, this fence, it
Speaker 2: sticks out like a sore thumb, and it costs eight
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars. And we're supposed to not think there's
Speaker 2: anything crooked going on that that's just the cost of
Speaker 2: procuring materials and labor and designing the incredibly ugly fence.
Speaker 2: Oh well, it has to have doors, that's why, because
Speaker 2: you know, if it was just a regular chain link fanks,
Speaker 2: we could have gone to home deepot what is going
Speaker 2: on here? And this is just one contract of one
Speaker 2: small aspect of a city's budget, and whether you talk
Speaker 2: about city budgets, county budgets, school district budgets, state budgets,
Speaker 2: or the federal budget, how many decisions are being made
Speaker 2: like this, whether it's through straight up negligence or incompetence
Speaker 2: that they don't care how much money they're spending, or
Speaker 2: somebody is getting rich off of this. This does not
Speaker 2: pass the smell test for me. Do you think this
Speaker 2: is legit at all? Send me an email at Randywangradio
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. I'm going to put this video
Speaker 2: up on my YouTube channel. You can comment on it
Speaker 2: there by going to Randy Wang Radio and let me
Speaker 2: know what you think, because I think this is a
Speaker 2: bunch of bs. It's Friday, the weekend is finally here,
Speaker 2: and I don't know about you, but I am excited
Speaker 2: to do a whole lot of nothing. The wife's finally
Speaker 2: back in town, the dogs are very happy, the weather's
Speaker 2: starting to cool down a little bit. Maybe it'll be
Speaker 2: time for a little patio action. That could be fun.
Speaker 2: But I gotta tell you, the last six weeks have
Speaker 2: been very actually, no longer than six weeks, because we
Speaker 2: started doing the testing for all the video stuff two
Speaker 2: months ago. So the last eight weeks have been the
Speaker 2: busiest and the most I have ever had to work
Speaker 2: doing this kind of job. This is more work than
Speaker 2: even when I was double shifting working the morning show
Speaker 2: at kls X and working the night show, because I
Speaker 2: I didn't have very many duties back then. But this
Speaker 2: has been a lot, and I am very excited to
Speaker 2: have a weekend where I am not prepping or hosting,
Speaker 2: or posting or clipping. I just want to disconnect, hang
Speaker 2: out with the dogs, hang out with wife, maybe play
Speaker 2: a little Nintendo. You know, I really thought that when
Speaker 2: my wife went to Canada for the summer that I
Speaker 2: would really get to spend a lot of time with
Speaker 2: my good friend Nintendo. And I did for like the
Speaker 2: first couple of weeks, and then ever since we got
Speaker 2: kicked into high gear and I've been working these twelve
Speaker 2: hour days, I don't get to play it nearly as
Speaker 2: much as I thought I did. It's probably a good thing,
Speaker 2: but I'm ready for a break. That being said, there
Speaker 2: are some fun things going on this weekend, like the
Speaker 2: six two six night More, America's first large scale night market,
Speaker 2: returns to take over Santa Anita Park over two summer weekends.
Speaker 2: Come hungry, try two hundred and fifty Asian street foods
Speaker 2: and booze, live music performances, artists, games, and more. This is,
Speaker 2: of course, at Santa Anita. I would imagine in the
Speaker 2: infield from three to eleven PM and it's eight bucks
Speaker 2: to go. I really need to try out more of
Speaker 2: these night markets because they have these pop up ones
Speaker 2: all over the place. There's one near me that has
Speaker 2: taken over the parking lot and an abandoned sizzler and
Speaker 2: right there it sounds like I'm talking about a horror movie.
Speaker 2: I think it's called One on one night market. But
Speaker 2: I follow them on Instagram and it looks like a
Speaker 2: lot of fun and I should really go sometime and
Speaker 2: check it out. I'm just you know, it's not like
Speaker 2: you're gonna get a lot of health food when you
Speaker 2: go to a night market, but still it could be
Speaker 2: a good time. I don't think they have booze at
Speaker 2: that one, but at the one at Santa Anita they
Speaker 2: probably do. You know, many years ago, when I was
Speaker 2: just a young, little fledging podcaster for my old show,
Speaker 2: The Pretty Good Podcast, we did a live remote event.
Speaker 2: I don't remember how this worked out. Did we get
Speaker 2: paid to go there? Maybe we just did it. We
Speaker 2: sat there and did a podcast for like three hours
Speaker 2: in the middle of the Santa Neita Food Truck Festival,
Speaker 2: and listeners of our podcast just kept bringing us food
Speaker 2: from the different food trucks. And that was already when
Speaker 2: I was about at my fattest, but I feel like
Speaker 2: I got a lot fatter that day. I don't think
Speaker 2: I have a picture anywhere of that, but I think
Speaker 2: there is a picture of me at the Santa Neita
Speaker 2: Food Truck Festival in the summer of twenty eleven where
Speaker 2: I had a horrible haircut and I was wearing a
Speaker 2: shirt with my logo on it, a gray shirt that
Speaker 2: had shrunk and did not fit me. And comparing that
Speaker 2: to who I am today is It's been an interesting ride, folks,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you that very much. There's also some movies
Speaker 2: coming out this weekend. We were off last night, so
Speaker 2: I didn't get to explain this. Nim Rod, which is
Speaker 2: written by Billy Joe Armstrong of The Green Day Three
Speaker 2: buddies drive cross country in a van, causing Mayhemon mischief
Speaker 2: while racing to La for the Big Break opening for
Speaker 2: Green Day on New Year's Eve. All right, little road
Speaker 2: trip movie that sounds fun. And two Wrong Girls starring
Speaker 2: Kristin Stewart and Elijah Shockkat who you may know as
Speaker 2: maybe from Rested Development. Two aimless young women inadvertently gained
Speaker 2: telepathic abilities after ingesting an experimental drug, pitting them against
Speaker 2: dangerous rivals pursuing the same powerful substance. All right, that
Speaker 2: one sounds fun as well. Hey, go to the movies
Speaker 2: orgo see Spider Man again. Everyone loves that Spider Man movie.
Speaker 2: Beat the heat, Go sit in a movie theater and
Speaker 2: just try to avoid the lure of the popcorn, which
Speaker 2: I did. I did that because going to a movie
Speaker 2: theater by yourself, that is a dangerous game. When you
Speaker 2: like popcorn as much as I do. Boy back in
Speaker 2: the day we used to. It's just so embarrassing. Did
Speaker 2: you ever go to the movie theater you order the
Speaker 2: large popcorn, but you say, hey, can you only fill
Speaker 2: it halfway? And then let me have it. Go put
Speaker 2: a bunch of butter sauce on it. Then I'll give
Speaker 2: it back to you and you can fill it up
Speaker 2: all the way and so I can really layer in
Speaker 2: that butter. It's only me that did that. I'm the
Speaker 2: one who had the eating disorder. Huh, you never did that,
Speaker 2: all right, I guess that was just me. Hey, have
Speaker 2: a wonderful, wonderful weekend, everybody. There's tons of on demand
Speaker 2: content on the John Phillips Show YouTube channel if you
Speaker 2: want to watch that over the weekend. Johnny don't like
Speaker 2: dot com and I'm putting video clips of this show
Speaker 2: at Randy Wangradio. Dot Com decided to improve the algorithm
Speaker 2: for Johnny's show. I should put all of my stuff
Speaker 2: on a separate channel. We'll see if it has how
Speaker 2: it goes. Have a wonderful weekend. Everybody gets the news
Speaker 2: Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC.