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 go to the first caller
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 2: Get your voice heard.
Speaker 1: The KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang starts no, No, No.
Speaker 3: It is the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk
Speaker 3: Radio seven ninety KABC. This is your daily rundown of
Speaker 3: everything you need to know that's going on in California,
Speaker 3: Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and the
Speaker 3: Central Valley. I curate a list every single day of
Speaker 3: all the stories that I found that you might see
Speaker 3: find interesting at Randy Wangradio dot substack dot com. That's
Speaker 3: Randy Wangradio dot substack dot com. And of course, check
Speaker 3: out our YouTube page for all of the great things
Speaker 3: that are going on with the John Phillips Show and
Speaker 3: the Accountability Podcast at Johnny Don't Like dot com. That's
Speaker 3: Johnny with a y, Johnny don't like dot com. We
Speaker 3: start in Oakland, where a big trial is just getting underway,
Speaker 3: the trial of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. As it sure
Speaker 3: seems that the attorneys generals that have been suing Facebook
Speaker 3: and suing Meta have a pretty strong case that Meta,
Speaker 3: which owns Facebook and WhatsApp and Instagram, have created a
Speaker 3: product that is insanely addictive to children. And what the
Speaker 3: trial will play out was did this was this what
Speaker 3: they intended to do all along?
Speaker 2: Was this just a byproduct? What have you?
Speaker 3: You know, is it their fault that that what endless
Speaker 3: scrolling is addictive? Or did they purposely add features to
Speaker 3: manipulate the growing brains of children to get hooked on
Speaker 3: their platforms? And we're talking about children, We're mostly talking
Speaker 3: about Instagram. You know, there's a lot of these lawsuits
Speaker 3: that have been going on, a lot of these trials
Speaker 3: going on because ultimately, fifteen years after social media really
Speaker 3: started to become a thing, I mean, it's been around
Speaker 3: for twenty you know, Yeah, MySpace was a big thing
Speaker 3: twenty years ago. Is that while to think about then
Speaker 3: you had Facebook and Twitter, and then Instagram and Snapchat
Speaker 3: and TikTok, and it's everything everywhere, all at once. And
Speaker 3: in the last twenty years of social media, I think
Speaker 3: I think we can say while there have been some
Speaker 3: very positive effects, a lot of people have made money,
Speaker 3: you have some people feeling very connected, more connected than
Speaker 3: they've ever been able to feel before, in good ways
Speaker 3: and in bad ways because you have all kinds of
Speaker 3: organization that's going on from different kinds of crazy people.
Speaker 3: Look at the rise of the groups like the in cells,
Speaker 3: and if you don't know what that means, you don't
Speaker 3: want to know. But ultimately, as you look at the
Speaker 3: last twenty years of social media, it sure seems that
Speaker 3: it is a net negative for people's mental health. And
Speaker 3: that's where I think we need to all take a
Speaker 3: step back. As we have this technology at our fingertips,
Speaker 3: we have these instant gratification devices at our fingertips, just constantly,
Speaker 3: endlessly strolling for content that is algorithmically driven to either
Speaker 3: in you or, as we've seen with certain platforms, outrage
Speaker 3: you because that'll get you to watch more and to
Speaker 3: watch longer. Nothing wrong with that. It's a very successful product.
Speaker 3: People are glued to their screens. But is there something
Speaker 3: to be said, if the people that are glued to
Speaker 3: their screens aren't old enough to be making these decisions
Speaker 3: and the addictive behavior is actually stunting their development. So
Speaker 3: we'll see what the outcome of this trial is. I
Speaker 3: think it's very interesting and I think we really might
Speaker 3: need to lean in the direction of what places like
Speaker 3: Australia are doing, like they don't let anyone on the
Speaker 3: platform under sixteen. Is that maybe a start, Maybe this
Speaker 3: is something you just need to police yourself with your
Speaker 3: own household.
Speaker 2: But that's got to be so difficult.
Speaker 3: I mean, every you know, with all these conversations about
Speaker 3: having phones in schools, you got to imagine like every
Speaker 3: parent's got to get a phone to their kid by
Speaker 3: the time there went ten, eleven, twelve, and then you've
Speaker 3: got to have these platforms because everyone else has the platform.
Speaker 3: But we have seen real detrimental effects to what Meta
Speaker 3: has done. You know, you want to just talk about Instagram,
Speaker 3: and Instagram is a very different app now than it
Speaker 3: used to be. But we all know the documented and
Speaker 3: the real documented health effects of having these kinds of
Speaker 3: platforms where you have more cases of you know, people
Speaker 3: whether they're engaging in self harm, people engaging in anorexia, bulimia.
Speaker 3: The vain society that we're in, this kind of just
Speaker 3: exacerbates all of it.
Speaker 2: So we'll see what the trial ends up, what happens, But.
Speaker 3: I think it's time to have the conversation should these
Speaker 3: products be in the hands of children? TikTok as well?
Speaker 3: I know everyone loves the TikTok? How can you get
Speaker 3: the kids off of TikTok?
Speaker 2: But maybe maybe.
Speaker 3: Parents need to just police this on their own, or
Speaker 3: maybe they could use and assist. Just something to think about.
Speaker 3: Another instance where parents could use a hand is the
Speaker 3: regulation that is much needed for e bikes, And there
Speaker 3: is a pretty fascinating development going on in Newport Beach
Speaker 3: right now where yeah, e bikes were banned at the
Speaker 3: Newport Mesa unified school district for elementary school students and
Speaker 3: junior high students.
Speaker 2: You can take them if you're in the high school.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that has happened is more
Speaker 3: kids are now actually riding real bikes.
Speaker 2: And then there's the.
Speaker 3: Occasional sub story of like a parent who has to
Speaker 3: now drop her kid off at school because it's too
Speaker 3: far without the e bike that they're not allowed to use.
Speaker 3: But for the most part, I think e bikes have
Speaker 3: got to be regulated. I don't know why at the
Speaker 3: state level you can only ban them for kids under
Speaker 3: the age of twelve. These things are dangerous. They are motorcycles,
Speaker 3: except people are not treating them like their motorcycles. They're
Speaker 3: not wearing motorcycle jackets, they're not wearing motorcycle helmets. And
Speaker 3: the stories that we've heard of the injuries and the accidents,
Speaker 3: they're just horrifying. And they're multiplying all the time. And
Speaker 3: the state has a.
Speaker 2: Role in this. They actually encourage this.
Speaker 3: The state of California and its infinite wisdom through the
Speaker 3: California Air Resources Board, actually had a voucher program to
Speaker 3: use money from Cap and Trade aka Cap and Invest.
Speaker 3: One of the reasons your gas prices are so high
Speaker 3: is to give vouchers for free e bikes. Because the
Speaker 3: idea was it's gonna take cars off the road. And
Speaker 3: guess what, it did not take cars off the road.
Speaker 3: What happened was you had a bunch of people that
Speaker 3: gave them to their kids as Christmas presents, and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, this behavior started to emerge where
Speaker 3: teenagers who already do stupid things felt that they had
Speaker 3: this insane level of freedom to wreak terror.
Speaker 2: It's the mob mentality.
Speaker 3: It's kids going after people, the bumper games, where they're
Speaker 3: literally filming themselves crashing into people. The next is of
Speaker 3: social media plus e bikes, because ultimately everyone does this
Speaker 3: for the stunts, and they do it for the clicks,
Speaker 3: and they do it for the clout what have you.
Speaker 3: The reason there's so much dangerous behavior out there is
Speaker 3: because social media leads an incentive for it, and the
Speaker 3: young developing minds don't know what consequences are, so they
Speaker 3: think it's totally smart to film themselves committing and putting
Speaker 3: them on social media, and for once, I think the platform.
Speaker 2: Should be held responsible.
Speaker 3: You know, it reminds me of an issue that we've
Speaker 3: talked about endlessly on this show, street takeovers. Street takeovers
Speaker 3: are happening at a rapid pace in Los Angeles County,
Speaker 3: and the street takeovers almost inevitably lead to looting cases,
Speaker 3: and there's got to be something to be done about this.
Speaker 3: But one of the reasons why I don't think we
Speaker 3: go after these street takeovers so aggressively is because it's
Speaker 3: mostly teenagers doing this and we don't want to put
Speaker 3: them in juvenile hall, we don't want to put them away.
Speaker 3: But one of the reasons that the teenagers participate, whether
Speaker 3: you're just a spectator or whether you are the person
Speaker 3: doing the stunts, is you're doing it for social media
Speaker 3: and the social media platforms, which already are scoring up
Speaker 3: the mental health and the choices of children, they are
Speaker 3: actually giving them incentive structures. Because this isn't just like
Speaker 3: I'm doing this for fun. This is a career path.
Speaker 3: You can make a living. You can make a lot
Speaker 3: of money in a very quick amount of time through
Speaker 3: these apps, and you might be wondering, how do you
Speaker 3: make money off of this. It's not like you're gonna
Speaker 3: get you know, Quinn shirts to sponsor someone doing a
Speaker 3: street takeover.
Speaker 2: That's not what this is like.
Speaker 3: Do you know what goes on on TikTok and TikTok lives.
Speaker 3: You might think that TikTok is just this fifteen second
Speaker 3: app where someone does a dance and then someone else
Speaker 3: does a dance.
Speaker 2: So there's so much more than that. TikTok Live is.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you right now, I don't find myself interested
Speaker 3: in it at all, but it can be very addictive.
Speaker 3: You literally just go live the same way we go
Speaker 3: live for our noon to three show right here, you know,
Speaker 3: here on KABC, and you but just start like almost
Speaker 3: doing crowd work with whoever's watching you. Some people want
Speaker 3: to just be insulted or berated by the host. Sometimes
Speaker 3: there'll be a back and forth and you as the audience,
Speaker 3: are supposed to send little badges or little metals or
Speaker 3: little emojis, and each one maybe costs you a penny,
Speaker 3: a couple of pennies, and people do that over and
Speaker 3: over and over and over again, and the creator gives
Speaker 3: actual money. And there are children doing this and children
Speaker 3: spending money on this because it's only like five dollars
Speaker 3: get you five hundred credits, and it goes, you know,
Speaker 3: it goes crazy out of control. Think about that incentive
Speaker 3: structure where you can make money and you need to
Speaker 3: get the most amount of attention, and some young people
Speaker 3: are getting that amount of attention by doing things that
Speaker 3: are illegal. And that's why I think we need the
Speaker 3: social media platforms not only to be held accountable, to
Speaker 3: use everyone's most useless term for the mental health of
Speaker 3: young people and how we have definitely exacerbated that problem,
Speaker 3: but also the incentive structure for the kids on the
Speaker 3: e bike, so the kids in the street takeovers to
Speaker 3: find ways to profit from committing crimes. It is something
Speaker 3: that we have to grapple with. And in the age
Speaker 3: of all the surveillance that we talk about, in the
Speaker 3: age of all of the stuff that we talk about
Speaker 3: with AI and how advanced technology is, we can definitely
Speaker 3: find ways to knock this up. You're telling me you
Speaker 3: can't have an algorithm that sees illegal activity and immediately
Speaker 3: shuts down the account on TikTok and Snapchat and Instagram,
Speaker 3: And of course they don't because everyone seems to be
Speaker 3: making money off of this. But I think we have
Speaker 3: to take away that incentive structure.
Speaker 2: I just do.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: We'll see what happens with the Meta lawsuit and the
Speaker 3: Facebook being on trial. Will Zuckerberg take the stage? That
Speaker 3: usually doesn't go very well when Zuckerberg takes the stand,
Speaker 3: because he's not the most emotionally appealing fella.
Speaker 2: He sure seems like.
Speaker 3: A robot, devoid of all emotion in the worst possible way.
Speaker 3: Does money corrupt you? Well, how come there's no normal billionaires?
Speaker 3: Just something to think about? Doesn't mean I support the
Speaker 3: wealth tax. I'm just saying it's weird that there's almost
Speaker 3: no normal billionaires. They're all super super weird and super
Speaker 3: super freaky. Maybe that amount of money where you start
Speaker 3: deciding that you need to buy up all sorts of
Speaker 3: swaths of kawhi in Hawaii, there's something wrong. It's the
Speaker 3: News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC.
Speaker 3: It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio
Speaker 3: seven ninety KABC. Let's get this out of the way
Speaker 3: because I got a fun little giveaway for you. Seven
Speaker 3: ninety KABC welcomes Allison Krause and The Union Station featuring
Speaker 3: Jerry Douglas with special guests Theo Lawrence at the Pacific
Speaker 3: Amphitheater on August twenty ninth. Tickets are on sale now
Speaker 3: at pacamp dot com, but right now calling number nine
Speaker 3: at one eight eight eight seven ninety five two two
Speaker 3: two gets a pair of tickets to the show. This
Speaker 3: is a post fair concert. Tickets furnished by the Pacific Amphitheater.
Speaker 3: Good Luck Dialing. In addition to this show and The
Speaker 3: John Phillips Show, Johnny and I host a podcast that
Speaker 3: comes out every single week called the Accountability Podcast. And
Speaker 3: if you wonder how we came up with the name
Speaker 3: the Accountability Podcast, accountability, accountability, it's because it is the
Speaker 3: most meaningless word in the English language. Politicians use it
Speaker 3: all the time and it means nothing. They want to
Speaker 3: hold people accountable, they want themselves to be held accountable accountability,
Speaker 3: it means nothing. For a minute, we were going to
Speaker 3: call it the quite frankly Podcast, but people have been
Speaker 3: confused us with Scott Galloway. If you watch Scott Galloway,
Speaker 3: you'll understand the reference. We have a brand new episode
Speaker 3: that premieres tomorrow at three pm. The algorithm tells me
Speaker 3: the best way to drop these things is like right
Speaker 3: after the show and promoted heavily. We've got our friend
Speaker 3: Seneca Scott coming on, and Seneca Scott knows Oakland politics
Speaker 3: better than anybody and has a lot to say about
Speaker 3: the corruption trial for one Shang E Tao.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely and.
Speaker 3: It's connection to Attorney General Bobert Bonta Bonta. It is
Speaker 3: a must watch. It is a must listen. So there
Speaker 3: are many ways that you can find the show. You
Speaker 3: can search for the Accountability Podcast wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 3: or go to the website with the YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: It's the easiest way. We've made it so easy for you.
Speaker 3: We bought a domain name Johnny don't Like dot Com.
Speaker 3: That's Johnny don't like dot Com Johnny with a why
Speaker 3: takes you to our YouTube channel where you can see
Speaker 3: all the episodes that we have of the Accountability Podcast.
Speaker 3: Last week we out on Susan Crabtree to talk about
Speaker 3: Gavin Newsom gallivanting admission. The week before that we had
Speaker 3: Steve Hilton on. Check out all of the episodes and
Speaker 3: if you could do us a favor while you're watching,
Speaker 3: hit the like button the thumbs up that tells YouTube
Speaker 3: to recommend our content to new people. It helps us
Speaker 3: out every single day, and leave a comment tell us
Speaker 3: what you think. That also is very very important. So
Speaker 3: check it all out at Johnny Don't Like dot Com?
Speaker 3: And hey, how exciting is this? Two weeks from Friday.
Speaker 3: On Friday, September fourth, the John Phillips Show is heading
Speaker 3: back to Sherman Oaks to the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill.
Speaker 2: I love Pineapple Hill. I actually go there all the time.
Speaker 3: It's great if you're ever going to Pineapple Hill I
Speaker 3: think that their pineapple margarita is excellent and I don't
Speaker 3: even need to special order it like Loagave.
Speaker 2: They do a great job. And the best.
Speaker 3: Sandwich on the menu used to think was the Reuben.
Speaker 3: It's the Club. Their club sandwich is terrific, and then
Speaker 3: you can even get it on gluten free bread. So
Speaker 3: we're going to be at Pineapple Hill from noon to
Speaker 3: three on Friday, September fourth to hang out with our
Speaker 3: friends from the Howard Jarvis Tax Bears Association, including Susan Shelley,
Speaker 3: as we rallied to get people to spread awareness to
Speaker 3: vote yes on Prop forty three. Prop forty three is
Speaker 3: the Local Taxpayer Protection Act. The Save Prop thirteen Act
Speaker 3: made it on the ballot, so we're there to support it.
Speaker 3: You can get signs and all kinds of other swag
Speaker 3: for Prop forty three at the event.
Speaker 2: Hang out with us, have lunch. It's gonna be a
Speaker 2: great day.
Speaker 3: The John Phillips Show Live at Pineapple Hill in Sherman
Speaker 3: Oaks from noon to three, Friday September fourth. How is
Speaker 3: September already gonna be here? It has been a really,
Speaker 3: really really quick summer. It's also been a really hot summer.
Speaker 3: But maybe it's because it's been so busy. I mean,
Speaker 3: I have been working NonStop, relentlessly, launching this video stuff
Speaker 3: that we're doing from noon to three and the podcast
Speaker 3: and everything else. I feel like it was just June
Speaker 3: and now we're already looking at the end of August.
Speaker 2: But I hope you come out.
Speaker 3: It's we haven't done a remote in a little while,
Speaker 3: and we've got another one planned in October at Gladstone's
Speaker 3: in Long Beach with our buddy John sang My. So
Speaker 3: that's very exciting as well. And I am always pushing,
Speaker 3: I'm always trying. I want to make sure, hopefully by
Speaker 3: the end of the year we do one event up
Speaker 3: in the Bay Area to celebrate with all of our
Speaker 3: Bay Area listeners who have been listening to us on
Speaker 3: KSFO over the last year and a half. For me,
Speaker 3: it's any excuse to go up to the Bay Area.
Speaker 3: I love hanging out in San Francisco and actually got
Speaker 3: a little weekend trip planned there in September. We've got
Speaker 3: a lot more to go here on the news Blitz.
Speaker 2: Stick with us.
Speaker 3: If you want to send me an email, you can
Speaker 3: do so at Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC. It's
Speaker 3: the News Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC. This is
Speaker 3: your daily rundown of everything that's going on in the
Speaker 3: state of California, Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego,
Speaker 3: in the Central Valley. I compile a list every single
Speaker 3: day of all the stories that I find interesting that
Speaker 3: you might want to check out at Wang radio dot
Speaker 3: substack dot com. It's my show prep visualized for you
Speaker 3: Randy Wang Radio dot substack dot com. Well, it's been
Speaker 3: a very quick summer for me and maybe for you.
Speaker 3: For the people dealing with the disasters that have gone
Speaker 3: on in Los Angeles County over the last six weeks,
Speaker 3: it's probably been a really slow and awful summer. How
Speaker 3: about we start with the people who are still suffering
Speaker 3: every single day in Boile Heights from the Lineage cold
Speaker 3: storage facility fire that ended up having eighty five million
Speaker 3: pounds of rotting food. Well, Karen Bass's deadline for when
Speaker 3: Lineage was supposed to clean it all up has passed,
Speaker 3: although they're disputing it. Although I don't think they're going
Speaker 3: to make their deadline as well. And even though ninety
Speaker 3: three percent of the food is gone, it still smells
Speaker 3: like hell out there.
Speaker 2: What's going on here? Let's check it out here is NBCLA.
Speaker 5: Is frustration in Boyle Heights tonight, days after an apparent
Speaker 5: miss deadline to clean up the burned out warehouse, and
Speaker 5: immunity members are still dealing with the smell of rotting
Speaker 5: food and the infestation of flies and rats.
Speaker 2: And let's not forget.
Speaker 3: Thanks to reporting from NBC four, we know that those
Speaker 3: flies are disease carrying flies that if they get into
Speaker 3: open wounds can cause all kinds of illnesses. And the
Speaker 3: county and the city weren't the ones to disclose that.
Speaker 3: It was reporting from NBC four getting documents where Karen
Speaker 3: Bass was complaining to Barbara Ferrara about the flies. But
Speaker 3: why didn't they want to tell the public.
Speaker 5: Both Merriw candidates are demanding accountability.
Speaker 2: And hey, that's the name of my podcast.
Speaker 5: BC four is Starshah Phillips is live in Boile Heights
Speaker 5: now with the latest on the situation.
Speaker 6: Darsha, Yeah, Carolyn, two months after that fire ripped through
Speaker 6: lineage cold storage warehouse behind me, we are still smelling
Speaker 6: the stench here we see the bugs and the rats
Speaker 6: because of the eighty five million pounds of food that continues.
Speaker 3: You know, you could argue, would have they not been
Speaker 3: better off if they let everything just burn to the ground.
Speaker 6: For Ron in that warehouse behind me. And even though
Speaker 6: the company says the cleanup is underway, Carolyn, let me
Speaker 6: tell you, this stench here is the worst I've ever
Speaker 6: smelled it. And that is what these community members are
Speaker 6: dealing with. And they say they are frustrated and fed up.
Speaker 3: I mean, is the stench going to be so baked
Speaker 3: in that even if they get rid of all the food,
Speaker 3: it's just going to linger there? How have they not
Speaker 3: just evacuated this whole area. The lack of response from
Speaker 3: the city, the county, the state, and the federal government
Speaker 3: in this environmental disaster shows that nobody cares about these people.
Speaker 6: Dozens and boil heights gathered near the Lineage warehouse, demanding
Speaker 6: action and answers nearly two months after a fire ripped
Speaker 6: through the cold storage company.
Speaker 3: And I have to just reiterate this all the time
Speaker 3: because it's the strangest part of this story. For me,
Speaker 3: It's awful what happened to this neighborhood. It's awful that
Speaker 3: this fire had eighty five thou million pounds of rotting food,
Speaker 3: what have you.
Speaker 2: But it seems to always be.
Speaker 3: Forgotten how the fire started, and it started on the
Speaker 3: solar panel farm that was on top of it, and
Speaker 3: that's part of the reason why it took the LAFD
Speaker 3: over a week to put out this fire. It's just
Speaker 3: kind of strange to me that we all ignore that fact.
Speaker 3: Because while Karen Bass can make big claims about environmental
Speaker 3: racism and how we shouldn't have these big ass warehouses
Speaker 3: in neighborhoods, near schools, what have you, they wouldn't dare
Speaker 3: say that about.
Speaker 2: Solar panel farms.
Speaker 3: One because of the green agenda, but more importantly, because
Speaker 3: there's probably a solar panel farm on the parking lot
Speaker 3: of your kids' school right now.
Speaker 2: But why don't we want.
Speaker 3: To mention that, Why don't we want to talk about
Speaker 3: how dangerous the high concentration of solar panels can be.
Speaker 6: And upended the lives of nearby residents. The committee still
Speaker 6: does not know whether.
Speaker 7: We were exposed.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, okay, I'm going to try to translate for
Speaker 3: you with my very very very very very elementary level
Speaker 3: of Spanish, because there's a sign going after Barbara Ferrer.
Speaker 3: It says Barbara Ferrer kwondo vas attendre nuestra salud, ninos
Speaker 3: and sitanios. Okay, I'm gonna have to look that one
Speaker 3: up during the break. Doesn't sound like they're very happy
Speaker 3: with babs.
Speaker 6: To ammonia or the full toxic impact of what was released.
Speaker 8: Our communities and our neighborhoods have been battling with environmental
Speaker 8: racism racism for decades, and we need reparations.
Speaker 5: We need these corporations to get out of here forever
Speaker 5: because this was a catastrophe.
Speaker 6: And we need new policies that protect us teachers.
Speaker 3: Now it's the new nimbiism. No more refrigerators near homes.
Speaker 6: Okay, back at school at nearby campuses say they are
Speaker 6: concerned for their students and their families, parents, the students,
Speaker 6: they all got allergies, they continued to have headaches.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we sent them back to school in all
Speaker 3: of this. Seriously, how much could it have cost to
Speaker 3: just keep this neighborhood evacuated throughout this entire thing.
Speaker 7: They have skin ratchets and nose bleats.
Speaker 6: Council member Nitthia Rahman.
Speaker 3: Who is Oh, here we go, It's time for the
Speaker 3: opportunists running.
Speaker 6: For mayor of Los Angeles, held a rally in press
Speaker 6: conference calling out what she says is poor executive leadership
Speaker 6: from city Hall.
Speaker 7: Was the air safe to breathe or not?
Speaker 6: Why were the mayor's advisors working with Lineage at the
Speaker 6: same time?
Speaker 3: These are actually very fair questions. Karen Bass had a
Speaker 3: top advisor who was also advising Lineage. Karen Bess said,
Speaker 3: the air is safe to breathe, You do not need
Speaker 3: to evacuate.
Speaker 2: Barbara Prere said the same thing.
Speaker 7: Why did the city take weeks to conduct door to
Speaker 7: door outreach? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Why did it take more than two weeks to ask
Speaker 6: for relocation assistance from Lineage? Last week, Lineage Corporation missed
Speaker 6: Mayor Karen Vass's deadline to clear out all the rotting
Speaker 6: food from the warehouse. NBC four is karma. Dickerson pressed
Speaker 6: the mayor on that matter at a campaign event over
Speaker 6: the weekend.
Speaker 2: You have to have a deadline. Forty deadline doesn't mean
Speaker 2: a damn thing.
Speaker 3: Absentee Landlord Karen Bass is hands down the worst mayor
Speaker 3: Los Angeles has ever had, including this Jackass.
Speaker 2: I received things on both ends.
Speaker 3: Would Nithia be worse? Probably, I don't know how you
Speaker 3: make that decision.
Speaker 2: Five days is what we said. Forty five days is
Speaker 2: what they should hold to.
Speaker 7: Forty five days from when when was the property transfer
Speaker 7: to that? I mean, I can't give you the exact day,
Speaker 7: but the point.
Speaker 2: Is exactly metals here. But I called for it.
Speaker 3: She is uniquely terrible, and she's a terrible communicator, and
Speaker 3: also she's running a terrible reelection campaign. Do you see
Speaker 3: that video where she posted that someone asked her to
Speaker 3: mom donnia pothole, which means get the pothole filled, and
Speaker 3: at the end of the video she doesn't fill the pothole.
Speaker 3: What the hell is wrong with you?
Speaker 7: On forty five.
Speaker 6: Days, lineage says the warehouse is ninety five percent clear
Speaker 6: and the cleanup should be done by the end of
Speaker 6: the week. And residents want to know if the warehouse
Speaker 6: is ninety five percent cleaned up, why they continue to
Speaker 6: smell this odor?
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 6: Lineage is also applied.
Speaker 2: For also just another thing.
Speaker 3: If you're a homeowner, I understand that's a little harder,
Speaker 3: but if you're a renter, why are people choosing to
Speaker 3: stay there when you could move.
Speaker 2: You could leave.
Speaker 3: Is it because most of this area is under like
Speaker 3: rent stabilization ordinances and rent control?
Speaker 2: Because that's quite a decision.
Speaker 6: To make hermits to repair and rebuild. Mayor Karen Bass
Speaker 6: has put an pause on that order until an investigation
Speaker 6: can go into exactly what happened here. But people in
Speaker 6: this community say they do not want to see lineage
Speaker 6: back here in their community. They want the warehouse torn down.
Speaker 6: Reporting live tonight from Boyle Heights, I'm Darshah Phillips, NBC
Speaker 6: four News.
Speaker 3: But of course that's not the only disaster that residents
Speaker 3: of Los Angeles City and County had to face this summer.
Speaker 3: People are still displaced from the massive water main break
Speaker 3: in West Hollywood thanks to the awfulness of the LEDWP
Speaker 3: and not doing anything about their one hundred and ten
Speaker 3: year old pipes. For more on this, here's NBCLA.
Speaker 9: It has now been one month since that major watermain
Speaker 9: break in West Hollywood closed a portion of Sunset Boulevard,
Speaker 9: total cars and flooded apartments and businesses near by. Good
Speaker 9: evening once again, everyone, I'm Colleen Williams, and.
Speaker 4: I'm Annabel Soadonna And for Michael Brownie tonight. Some people
Speaker 4: impacted are still staying in hotels. NBC four as Alex
Speaker 4: Rosier has been covering the story since the beginning, he
Speaker 4: has an update for us that you'll see for the
Speaker 4: first time and only on NBC.
Speaker 7: Four Alex.
Speaker 10: And Annabel and Colleen Good Evening. You can see right
Speaker 10: behind us here this is where that water main broke
Speaker 10: on Sunset near Holloway. Traffic once again moving. Some people
Speaker 10: may think things are back to normal, but if you
Speaker 10: talk to people who live right down here, they'll tell
Speaker 10: you that they're still in the middle of a nightmare.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you never want to be downhill when there's a
Speaker 3: big flood, these poor people.
Speaker 10: Today, several contractors are parked on Palm Avenue in West
Speaker 10: Hollywood as work continues after the major water main break
Speaker 10: on nearby Sunset Boulevard one month ago.
Speaker 7: What's the last month been like?
Speaker 11: Very stressful.
Speaker 10: Tony said he had two cars totaled after the broken
Speaker 10: water main flooded his parking garage, and now he's been
Speaker 10: staying in a hotel for twenty nine days because his
Speaker 10: complex is still not livable.
Speaker 2: I just want to go home.
Speaker 11: I just want to sleep in my own bed.
Speaker 3: I just want to you forget that these things have
Speaker 3: these real life, long lasting consequences. You've been out of
Speaker 3: your house for a month because of this stupid water
Speaker 3: main break, something that happens every single week because the
Speaker 3: LEDWP and the City of Los Angeles do not prioritize maintenance.
Speaker 11: Presume my life. I don't have it as bad as
Speaker 11: the people who are on the ground floor, nine.
Speaker 7: Of whom lost, some are all of their Belonis upthrow.
Speaker 7: Dialogue Cafe has extensive damage too.
Speaker 8: We've kind of realized now this location will probably take
Speaker 8: maybe up to a year, maybe over a year to rebuild.
Speaker 7: Narbgas Alien as co owner.
Speaker 10: He says they'll announce a new temporary home in West
Speaker 10: Hollywood soon.
Speaker 8: You're very close and as soon as it gets finalized,
Speaker 8: will be able to it. So we'll have a pop
Speaker 8: up location, full menu.
Speaker 10: Both Dialogue and Tony have filed claims with insurance and LADWP,
Speaker 10: but that process is ongoing and bills are adding up.
Speaker 3: And here's another issue, whether it's the insurance companies and
Speaker 3: we talked plenty about them, or the utility themselves, the
Speaker 3: public utility that caused this disaster. How are you dragging
Speaker 3: your feet on dealing with the claims of the people
Speaker 3: that you victimized. You know, I have had a lot
Speaker 3: of criticism for our private energy monopolies in California, notably
Speaker 3: PG and E SO cal Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric.
Speaker 3: And you can make the logical argument that one way
Speaker 3: to have a better system is to have municipally owned utilities,
Speaker 3: and there are some that are run very well, SMUD
Speaker 3: being one of them. But the LADWP kind of deflates
Speaker 3: this entire argument because the LADWP is a municipally owned
Speaker 3: utility and it is all fully run. It is incredibly expensive,
Speaker 3: and whatever they've been spending money on it hasn't been
Speaker 3: on replacing the one hundred year old pipes. The pipe
Speaker 3: that burst that caused this disaster was over one hundred
Speaker 3: and ten years old, was flagged as highly dangerous and
Speaker 3: needed to be replaced, and it was on a waiting
Speaker 3: list where it would take five years before they started
Speaker 3: to replace it because their current infrastructure replacement plan is
Speaker 3: a one hundred and fifty year plan. So I don't
Speaker 3: know what the good answer is here, because the private
Speaker 3: energy monopoly suck and the public utility sucks.
Speaker 11: So what do we do I'm out of pocket already
Speaker 11: ten thousand plus dollars just for the hotel.
Speaker 2: One of the things.
Speaker 8: That's underestimated is how long and how much time it
Speaker 8: takes to actually go through the claims process, right.
Speaker 3: Like, that's unacceptable. We should have an insurance commissioner that
Speaker 3: goes after and insurance companies that do not deal with
Speaker 3: claims in a quickly and timely manner, and we should
Speaker 3: have some kind of regulator the CPUC, I don't know,
Speaker 3: going after our utilities, including a public utility, a public good,
Speaker 3: not paying out the claims. When you ruin people's lives.
Speaker 8: It's a full time job in itself.
Speaker 10: Today, LADWP said they received ninety eight claims following the
Speaker 10: water main break, saying quote ladwp's goal is to reach
Speaker 10: a final decision on a claim within thirty to forty
Speaker 10: five days. The length of the claim process varies depending.
Speaker 3: On Meanwhile, these people have to put themselves up in
Speaker 3: a hotel for thirty to forty five days, it might
Speaker 3: be longer. Maybe they lost their car, maybe they lost
Speaker 3: their their clothing, what have you.
Speaker 10: It's it's unacceptable the complexity of each individual claim, so
Speaker 10: timelines can differ case by case As he waits, Tony
Speaker 10: admits the stress is taking a toll.
Speaker 11: Its completely derailed my entire summer.
Speaker 7: And he says he doesn't know how long this headache
Speaker 7: will last.
Speaker 2: Expect to be in a hotel.
Speaker 11: Honestly, I have given up expectations because I thought that
Speaker 11: by now we might have sufficient services restored in the
Speaker 11: building that I could comfortably come back.
Speaker 10: And as you look live Tonight's have that big sign
Speaker 10: a dialogue posted outside announcing their temporary closure, inviting people
Speaker 10: to visit their West LA location. But that's the story
Speaker 10: of one business and one person. Here on Paul Avenue,
Speaker 10: there are several people in similar situations, all of them
Speaker 10: hoping that their claims with their insurance and LADWP will
Speaker 10: be resolved soon. We're live in West Hollywood tonight. I'm
Speaker 10: Alex Rosier, NBC four News.
Speaker 2: Just another instance.
Speaker 3: Whether it's the County of LA, the City of La,
Speaker 3: the mayor, the DWP, nobody seems to take disaster response
Speaker 3: seriously and nobody has the back of the people who
Speaker 3: have been victimized by our incompetence. It's the the News
Speaker 3: Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC. It's the News Blitz
Speaker 3: with Randy Wang on KABC. If you've ever liked to
Speaker 3: email me, you can do so at Randy Wang Radio
Speaker 3: at gmail dot com. Occasionally I will just you know,
Speaker 3: speak out my inner desires on the radio in the
Speaker 3: middle of a segment. I don't think it's a secret
Speaker 3: to anybody who listens to this show or the John
Speaker 3: Phillips Show or the Accountability Podcast that I really want
Speaker 3: out of the city of Los Angeles. I really, really,
Speaker 3: really have had enough of it. And it's not even
Speaker 3: about the you know, the corrupt politics, although that's part
Speaker 3: of it. I'm not meant to live in this car
Speaker 3: centric world that is LA. The worst part of my
Speaker 3: day is driving to and from Culver City, and I
Speaker 3: get no joy out of sitting on a freeway that's
Speaker 3: not moving. I don't like the fact that I live
Speaker 3: in a neighborhood in the suburbs where I can't walk anywhere,
Speaker 3: there's nothing to do. It just does not feel like
Speaker 3: the kind of quality of life that I want for
Speaker 3: how much I'm paying to be here. So I want out,
Speaker 3: And I will jokingly, you know, mention over and over
Speaker 3: and over again that i'd kind of like to, you know,
Speaker 3: live in the Bay area at some point, or at
Speaker 3: least have a little condo now. Because of the real
Speaker 3: estate explosion in San Francisco, I don't think I'm going
Speaker 3: to be getting a place in San Francisco proper anytime soon.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe this podcast will take off and I can afford
Speaker 3: a place like near Golden Gate Park. But listener Cindy
Speaker 3: has been sending me listings of like places that they're
Speaker 3: not San Francisco, but they sure are close, Like you
Speaker 3: know place This is in Marin County, on the other
Speaker 3: side of the Golden Gate Bridge, in like Salslito, and
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about these neighborhoods, but the house
Speaker 3: looks really nice. It's small, it's a one bedroom, one bath,
Speaker 3: six hundred square foot home, but it's a you know,
Speaker 3: it's four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That's you know,
Speaker 3: if we could figure out how to live in that
Speaker 3: small of a footprint, it's not a bad idea. I
Speaker 3: think it's a condo, but you know, you're just a
Speaker 3: few minutes away from San Francisco. Oh boy, the hoa
Speaker 3: is seven hundred and forty a month. Well, I'll have
Speaker 3: to think about that. But still for what the price is.
Speaker 3: It's something to think about. I just, you know, sometimes
Speaker 3: I need to just think about that. There is an
Speaker 3: escape that there, you know, as I get to this
Speaker 3: next phase of my life in my career, I just
Speaker 3: turned forty one, I've accomplished a lot of my life goals.
Speaker 3: I've accomplished a lot of my career goals. So at
Speaker 3: this point it's you know, I would like to do
Speaker 3: better financially.
Speaker 2: Who wouldn't.
Speaker 3: But I want a better quality of life, And for me,
Speaker 3: that's not living in the city of la doesn't mean
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be happy in a place like Burbank, a
Speaker 3: place like Long Beach, place like Santa Monica, a place
Speaker 3: where I could walk around and do a bunch of
Speaker 3: stuff that I think.
Speaker 2: I had so much fun that week in Toronto. That
Speaker 2: made me so happy.
Speaker 3: Being able to work from a hotel room, walk up
Speaker 3: and down, check out all these places.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: And I love traveling. I love being able to work
Speaker 3: while traveling. I definitely want to do more. You know,
Speaker 3: Pasadena another fantastic idea, another fantastic place I would live there.
Speaker 3: I loved living in Burbank. I don't think I took
Speaker 3: advantage of living in Burbank when I lived in Burbank
Speaker 3: because we lived downtown and you could walk to downtown
Speaker 3: and it was a downhill slope too, so it was easy.
Speaker 3: But I was much heavier than and it was much
Speaker 3: lazier than. But just things I like to think about.
Speaker 3: You know, where I am right now is not where
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be. But I kind of feel feel
Speaker 3: stuck because I can't sell this house. We have a
Speaker 3: two percent interest rate. Are you kidding? Like we'll have
Speaker 3: to rent out this house and then we have to
Speaker 3: buy or rent somewhere else.
Speaker 2: But it's it's not impossible. And then we've also.
Speaker 3: Realized that, you know, downsizing is definitely a thing like
Speaker 3: we have even though you know we both have home offices.
Speaker 2: We don't need a four bedroom house. We could definitely downsize.
Speaker 2: Might have to get rid of the wine fridge. I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 3: Now that's got to come with us. We've got to
Speaker 3: have room for the two hundred bottle wine fridge.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't think I can fit that into a little condo.
Speaker 3: Thank y'all so much for listening to the show. Check
Speaker 3: out our YouTube channel. Johnny Don't like dot com, that's Johnny.
Speaker 3: Don't like dot com. It's The news Blitz with Randy
Speaker 3: Wang on KAVC