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: in 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 is going on in
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 see that I
Speaker 3: find interesting that you may want to check out stuff
Speaker 3: you may have missed at Randy Wang Radio dot substack
Speaker 3: dot com. That's Randy Wang Radio dot substack dot com.
Speaker 3: And make sure to check out our YouTube channel Johnny
Speaker 3: Don't Like dot com for the John Phillips Show on
Speaker 3: demand content and the accountability podcast that's Johnny Don't like
Speaker 3: dot Com. We start with one of my personal crusades.
Speaker 3: You know, there are some things that I'm just kind
Speaker 3: of a nag on, and I don't think I'll be
Speaker 3: changing anytime soon. I really don't like smoke shops. That
Speaker 3: doesn't mean I have this like crusade against tobacco or
Speaker 3: even a problem with people smoking cigarettes. I'm not one
Speaker 3: of those people. I you know, if that's what you
Speaker 3: want to do, fine, enjoy yourself. Not really my thing,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't really bother me. But smoke shops, We're
Speaker 3: talking talking about a totally different thing. Because, you know,
Speaker 3: the average person that I know that happens to smoke cigarettes,
Speaker 3: where are they buying their cigarettes? Probably a gas station,
Speaker 3: probably a you know, a seven to eleven, a convenience store.
Speaker 3: And how about people that enjoy cigars, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: they probably go to a fine liquor and cigar store
Speaker 3: like Tarzana Wine and Spirits, great place right there on
Speaker 3: Ventura Boulevard. I happen to believe that smoke shops are
Speaker 3: nothing but hotbeds of barely legal and illegal activity. Smoke
Speaker 3: shops which you would think means a place where people
Speaker 3: are going to buy I don't know, loose tobaccos so
Speaker 3: they can roll their own cigarettes.
Speaker 2: My uncle used to do that at one point. Super gross.
Speaker 3: Oh, maybe people are going to buy water pipes for
Speaker 3: their non tobacco smoking activities.
Speaker 2: Love that term water pipes.
Speaker 3: These places are everywhere in southern California. In the San
Speaker 3: Fernando Valley where I reluctantly still live, there is a
Speaker 3: smoke shop, dare I say, in almost every single strip mall.
Speaker 2: And smoking's way down.
Speaker 3: So how exactly are these businesses surviving in this climate? Oh,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you how, because they're selling a whole lot
Speaker 3: of things they're not supposed to.
Speaker 2: For one, we know a lot of these smoke shops.
Speaker 3: These are the places that are also operating as illegal
Speaker 3: pot stores. They're selling the stuff that they're not licensed
Speaker 3: to sell, and because they're doing it without a license,
Speaker 3: they're able to sell it a lot cheaper than the
Speaker 3: people doing it the right way. And apparently, according to
Speaker 3: our own primaried city attorney, it is so difficult to
Speaker 3: shut these things down even when they are operating illegally.
Speaker 2: I don't see how that makes any sense.
Speaker 3: We in fact, in the city of Los Angeles passed
Speaker 3: a ballot measure to allow the City of LA to
Speaker 3: send a tax bill to illegally operating pot stores. But
Speaker 3: the smoke shops do so much more than just offer pot.
Speaker 3: They offer a whole bunch of other things, including we
Speaker 3: did an entire story on the Accountability podcast about how
Speaker 3: a lot of these smoke shops they make a lot
Speaker 3: of money selling nitrous oxide. And if you're wondering what's
Speaker 3: that's for, it's for whippets. And they even have creatively
Speaker 3: designed packaging for canisters to attract young people to get
Speaker 3: this brand of whippets. How is that something that's legal.
Speaker 3: It's starting to have ordinances. But it is the wildest thing.
Speaker 3: You go to a rock concert now and you see
Speaker 3: people with these gigantic, transparent balloons selling them to you
Speaker 3: for five dollars so you can do a hit of
Speaker 3: nos before you go see a concert.
Speaker 2: But it's not just nitrous oxide.
Speaker 3: It's not just the pot that they're supposed to not
Speaker 3: be selling that they're selling. Oh no, no, no, they're
Speaker 3: so much more. And in fact, in Sacramento, researchers found
Speaker 3: that over half of the smoke shops that they surveyed
Speaker 3: sold banned substances that they're not supposed to sell. Because
Speaker 3: this is what the smoke shop is. It's kind of
Speaker 3: like what the you know, the roadside gas station in
Speaker 3: Middle America is like all of these products that are
Speaker 3: not evaluated by the FDA that are sold as health
Speaker 3: food products. Where you want to talk about the off
Speaker 3: brand penis pills, the stuff that's supposed to improve your
Speaker 3: form rments, whatsoever, stuff that's unlicensed. Pain believers create them,
Speaker 3: all of this insanity. Remember when the whole thing was
Speaker 3: the pot stores were selling synthetic pot K two and
Speaker 3: spice bath salts. Seriously, there is so much crap going
Speaker 3: on that it shouldn't be legitimate at all. And in
Speaker 3: a state that loves to regulate and ban everything, it's
Speaker 3: so bizarre to me that we allow the smoke shops
Speaker 3: that plague our neighborhoods and attract criminal activity, and a
Speaker 3: lot of them are fronts for straight up criminal organizations
Speaker 3: are allowed to thrive. And I have a theory on this.
Speaker 3: I have a long standing theory why we look the
Speaker 3: other way when it comes to the smoke shops and
Speaker 3: the strip malls selling a bunch of stuff they're not
Speaker 3: supposed to. Why we look the other way on the
Speaker 3: illicit massage parlor in the strip mall that is definitely
Speaker 3: not selling anything that someone would consider a legitimate massage.
Speaker 3: If a massage parlor has black bars on the windows,
Speaker 3: there's not a lot of real spa treatments going on there.
Speaker 3: If they have flashing neon signs, chances are they're not legit.
Speaker 3: If their hours are open until eleven o'clock at night,
Speaker 3: you know exactly what is going on out there. If
Speaker 3: this was a podcast, I could say in more detail
Speaker 3: what we call these places, but since I'm on the radio,
Speaker 3: I'll just call.
Speaker 2: It an R and T.
Speaker 3: We know what these places are, and they're all over
Speaker 3: the place. You know, if you drive through the San
Speaker 3: Fernando Valley, it repeats itself over and over and over again.
Speaker 3: Just count how many McDonald's there are Unventura Boulevard. Also
Speaker 3: count how many smoke shops are in little strip malls.
Speaker 3: And you look at these strip malls that we have
Speaker 3: way too many of, and almost every single one that
Speaker 3: I drive past has either a smoke shop, a massage
Speaker 3: parlor or both. And in fact, the closest strip mall
Speaker 3: to my house has a I don't consider the seven
Speaker 3: eleven part of the smoke shop, but right next to
Speaker 3: the seven eleven is a four unit strip mall. Two
Speaker 3: of the units have been for lease and abandoned for
Speaker 3: a long time. The two units that are still in
Speaker 3: there smoke shop and massage parlor. And this is why
Speaker 3: I believe we look the other way on this, Why
Speaker 3: even though we know there is obvious human trafficking going
Speaker 3: on at these places every single day, obvious dens of
Speaker 3: prostitution at the massage parlors. We know there are obvious
Speaker 3: hotbeds of criminal activity, sometimes connected to gangs and organized
Speaker 3: crime going on at these smoke shops.
Speaker 2: The reason we don't bust them.
Speaker 3: Is because if we did that, if we cracked down
Speaker 3: on the smoke shop, if we crack down on the
Speaker 3: massage parlor, if we shut down those businesses, is it
Speaker 3: possible that there are to be such a massive impact
Speaker 3: to the commercial real estate bubble that we are currently
Speaker 3: facing right now that if you don't have the smoke
Speaker 3: shop paying the rent, and you don't have the obviously
Speaker 3: illicit massage parlor paying the rent, that you're going to
Speaker 3: see a whole bunch of these strip malls all of
Speaker 3: a sudden have no shops. There's four least signs in
Speaker 3: every single one of them. Now you see a completely
Speaker 3: full strip mall, you must be in a very good neighborhood.
Speaker 3: So is it possible that we're looking the other way
Speaker 3: because these are the only businesses that are going to
Speaker 3: pay the rent Because it's very hard to start a
Speaker 3: small business. It's very expensive to start a small business.
Speaker 3: Commercial real estate is very expensive to lease, and you
Speaker 3: have so many people that own these commercial properties that
Speaker 3: are not getting what Maybe they're barely getting enough to
Speaker 3: pay their loans, maybe they're getting less, maybe they're losing
Speaker 3: money on them. And if we were to shut down
Speaker 3: all of the obvious illegal businesses that are all throughout
Speaker 3: these smoke shops, you might start seeing all kinds of foreclosures,
Speaker 3: in bankruptcies and.
Speaker 2: What have you.
Speaker 3: And you know, we're kind of like this house of cards,
Speaker 3: keeping the commercial real estate economy afloat by allowing all
Speaker 3: of this criminal activity.
Speaker 2: Now, in my mind, what would we do about this?
Speaker 3: And I know this is one of those things that's
Speaker 3: a lot harder in practice, but I still think it's
Speaker 3: worth thinking about. You know you're even hearing in her
Speaker 3: desperate plea to get re elected, Karen Bass talking about
Speaker 3: adaptive reuse. When it comes to all of the downtown
Speaker 3: buildings that are empty because the office space isn't coming back,
Speaker 3: I think that that is a lot of work and
Speaker 3: that can be very difficult. When it comes to the
Speaker 3: land that you know, these strip malls are on, it
Speaker 3: seems like that would be way easier to rezone and
Speaker 3: way quicker knock them down. When you have a strip
Speaker 3: mall that has nothing of value in it, Let's make
Speaker 3: it really easy for whoever owns that land to build
Speaker 3: some I'm not even going to say affordable housing because
Speaker 3: that's a loaded term, just housing. Let them build an
Speaker 3: apartment building there.
Speaker 2: Make it as.
Speaker 3: Easy as possible, in fact, incentivize it because we have
Speaker 3: a quote housing crime, right, and we need to build
Speaker 3: more housing and there's no legitimate business being done at
Speaker 3: the strip mall, and strip malls are super ugly and
Speaker 3: kind of a blight on neighborhoods at this point. You
Speaker 3: know the ones I'm talking about, if you live in
Speaker 3: the valley. Maybe we make it easier. Maybe we make
Speaker 3: it so we can start really making some changes and
Speaker 3: maybe you do the thing that you know is so
Speaker 3: trendy now where you know you have maybe it's a
Speaker 3: three or four story building because this is La in
Speaker 3: the Valley. We're not going to get crazy here, and
Speaker 3: you have a market on the first floor. I mean,
Speaker 3: they've actually got one of these now in Sherman Oaks.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. It is not cheap, but you could live
Speaker 3: on top of a Trader Joe's, which is an interesting
Speaker 3: way to live. But you know, I was walking around Toronto,
Speaker 3: and Toronto is a major metropolitan city, but there are
Speaker 3: and there is all kinds of housing. Like there is
Speaker 3: a massive mall near where I was staying called the Well,
Speaker 3: and on top of the Well is a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of apartments that's kind of cool. There was this really
Speaker 3: really really trendy bar that had like the biggest happy
Speaker 3: hour in downtown Toronto and it's the first floor of
Speaker 3: a big apartment building.
Speaker 2: Like, I don't have a problem with more of that stuff.
Speaker 3: I don't think LA in our infrastructure can handle you know,
Speaker 3: ten twelve story buildings in places like the San Fernando Valley,
Speaker 3: but more of that kind of reuse where you have
Speaker 3: something that's kind of fun that maybe the people who
Speaker 3: live in the building would use.
Speaker 2: But what do we have instead?
Speaker 3: We have vacant retail spaces and the only people paying
Speaker 3: the rent are pretty obviously criminal organizations. Maybe I'm biased,
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm just.
Speaker 2: A little cranky.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm so sick of driving past this strip mall
Speaker 3: I see every single day. But I don't think anything
Speaker 3: legitimate happens at smoke shops. I don't think anything legitimate
Speaker 3: happens at massage parlors. Nobody's going in there because they
Speaker 3: have back pain. That's just not happening. I could go
Speaker 3: into further detail on how I know exactly what goes
Speaker 3: on in those places, but this is a family show,
Speaker 3: and I already told all those stories on my old
Speaker 3: podcast and scrubbed that stuff from the internet, and I'm
Speaker 3: not going to do it again. It's the News Blitz
Speaker 3: with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC.
Speaker 2: It's the News.
Speaker 3: Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. Hey,
Speaker 3: after I sign off here at six If you haven't
Speaker 3: checked out the latest episode of The Accountability Podcast, it
Speaker 3: dropped today at three pm, and it's John and I
Speaker 3: and Seneca Scott talking about Bob Bonta panicking because of
Speaker 3: Sheng Tao's upcoming corruption trial. Do not miss it, Johnny,
Speaker 3: don't like dot Com. Let's go to David Whittier.
Speaker 4: Dave, Hello, Yes, sir, okay, I've got a different take
Speaker 4: for you on this. Arresting these illegal businesses, the massage prothers, etc.
Speaker 4: Across the board in California. Do it. And here's why.
Speaker 4: Because all that property is going to be available, and
Speaker 4: we know in the real estate market, availability brings down prices, Okay,
Speaker 4: and that's what it's going to do. It's going to
Speaker 4: be bring down the price of leasing and it's going
Speaker 4: to spur on in California.
Speaker 3: Well, I like that idea because you know, I have
Speaker 3: seen some of the prices to lease. Even space is
Speaker 3: in the dumpiest of a strip ball. It's like, how
Speaker 3: does anybody get into that? You're right, maybe there'll be
Speaker 3: a little more competition and they'll have to lower the
Speaker 3: price and make it more competitive if we take out
Speaker 3: all of these places they know they're getting guaranteed income
Speaker 3: from from the obvious criminal organizations.
Speaker 4: Randy had already happened in La County. Deportations ice reporting
Speaker 4: has caused has caused you can google that. I think
Speaker 4: as you have mentioned, that caused rent prices to go
Speaker 4: down in Los Angeles County.
Speaker 3: Well, there you go, Dave, Thanks so much for the call.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Let's go to Tom in La Tom.
Speaker 4: Hello, Yeah, Hi, I think your theory about why they're
Speaker 4: not arresting the massage parlers is way too imaginative and
Speaker 4: gives the politicians way too much credit for intelligence and
Speaker 4: thoughtfulness they The bottom line is the politicians, for the
Speaker 4: most part, are narcissists. They really don't care about anything
Speaker 4: except themselves and what's going to get them re elected.
Speaker 4: They don't give a crap about anybody else, and and
Speaker 4: the law enforcement officers themselves. As a prosecutor for eleven years,
Speaker 4: I dealt with this stuff every day, the prosecutor or
Speaker 4: the law enforcement officers. You have a small minority who
Speaker 4: are really dedicated and really want to enforce the law
Speaker 4: and go after bad guys. They are constantly being put
Speaker 4: down and put to the side and told to be quiet,
Speaker 4: don't rock the boat. The people in charge are lazy.
Speaker 4: They're trying to keep control of their job situation because
Speaker 4: they're all making over one hundred thousand dollars with the
Speaker 4: overtime plus the retirement benefits, So they don't want to
Speaker 4: do anything that's going to jeopardize their job. And so
Speaker 4: it really doesn't have anything to do with them trying
Speaker 4: to support the real estate market. The pol Fishes, they
Speaker 4: just aren't that knowledgeable and thoughtful about business and they
Speaker 4: really don't care and in terms of lowering the having
Speaker 4: competition and lowering the rates, if those businesses were put
Speaker 4: out of business and the office spaces were left open.
Speaker 4: I was in Las Vegas during the two thousand and
Speaker 4: eight two thousand and nine real estate crash, and there
Speaker 4: were like strip malls all over the place that were vacant,
Speaker 4: totally vacant, or to be like one store. All the
Speaker 4: anchor stores were gone at the time. I tried to
Speaker 4: get some. I thought I'd get some cheap office space,
Speaker 4: so I called these different property managers that were handling
Speaker 4: the centers. The problem is these real estate centers, they're owned,
Speaker 4: they're owned by these big companies that really don't care
Speaker 4: if they sit empty because they take real estate losses
Speaker 4: on the income tax returns. So until you get rid
Speaker 4: of that loss on the income tax return, these big
Speaker 4: conglomerates that own the shopping centers. They don't really care
Speaker 4: if their thing is empty. And I mean, if you
Speaker 4: have a mom and pop owner, they're going to be hurting.
Speaker 4: But for the most part, most of these things are
Speaker 4: owned by you know, real estate investment trusts and LLCs
Speaker 4: that have lots of money and the people and when
Speaker 4: they're privately owned is publicly being publicly traded. The privately
Speaker 4: owned companies, those people they have so much money they
Speaker 4: don't care if a property does and you know, return
Speaker 4: any rent because they have sufficient funds in the bank.
Speaker 4: You know, the downturn is not going to hurt them.
Speaker 4: And for reasons that I personally don't understand, manage real estate.
Speaker 4: Property manager after property manager told me that they would
Speaker 4: not go down on their stated you know, per square
Speaker 4: foot rental rate.
Speaker 3: We see it every single day. Tom, We're running up
Speaker 3: against a break. But you make a heck of a
Speaker 3: lot of sense. The real estate companies don't care because
Speaker 3: they make money just on the loss. That makes sense.
Speaker 3: It's the news Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC. Chuck
Speaker 3: writes in at Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: Help me understand this.
Speaker 3: Where do you come up with the belief that strip
Speaker 3: mall should never have empty spots. Where do you and
Speaker 3: the guy you interviewed, the guy that called in come
Speaker 3: up with this belief that in your perfect world, every
Speaker 3: strip mall should be full and white.
Speaker 2: Does it math to you?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's just a sign of the economy
Speaker 3: that so many vacancies are in so many strip malls.
Speaker 3: And if the only places that are able to take
Speaker 3: out leases are places that are obvious dens for criminal activity,
Speaker 3: that's just kind of.
Speaker 2: Interesting to me. I don't understand. I'm not angry.
Speaker 3: I just don't understand why you believe that strip mall
Speaker 3: should never have vacancies, and more so, why does it
Speaker 3: bother you. I'm not mad, So please explain, because it's confusing.
Speaker 3: Where do you get this if I don't know who
Speaker 3: told you, maybe the Bible or someplace told you that
Speaker 3: throughout your life that strip malls will all be pleasantly full.
Speaker 3: It's not like there's one or two vacancies. Just drive
Speaker 3: up and down Van Owen Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.
Speaker 3: There are so many vacant storefronts all over the place,
Speaker 3: including a place that's zoned to be a pod store
Speaker 3: on Woodley and Victory.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, did I say Van Owen?
Speaker 3: I'm at Victory on Woodley and Victory that has been
Speaker 3: sitting vacant forever. There's a place zoned to be a
Speaker 3: restaurant right next to it, always vacant. Anyone that moves
Speaker 3: in there goes out of business. The only thing that
Speaker 3: makes any money in there is a Leo's Taco truck
Speaker 3: goes to the parking lot. My point of all of
Speaker 3: this is, if the commercial real estate is not working out,
Speaker 3: if we have these strip malls that nobody's starting businesses
Speaker 3: in and the only ones that are our criminal dens,
Speaker 3: and why don't we, you know, make it as easy
Speaker 3: as possible as policy makers for zoning.
Speaker 2: Changes to turn those into all of the buildings that
Speaker 2: we need.
Speaker 3: Instead of taking an old two story apartment building, tearing
Speaker 3: it down and making a seven story apartment building, why
Speaker 3: don't we start with all of this space that we
Speaker 3: have that nobody's really using.
Speaker 2: Just something to think about.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of you know, for as much as
Speaker 3: we talk about how we're in a housing crisis, there's
Speaker 3: so much land out there. And sure you have Steve
Speaker 3: Hilton talking about you know that there's so much empty space,
Speaker 3: why don't we start new cities, new county. You know,
Speaker 3: there's also lots of empty space just sitting around where
Speaker 3: we are right now. There's tons and tons and tons
Speaker 3: of land that can be developed or redeveloped. If you
Speaker 3: want to talk about all the land that the schools own,
Speaker 3: what have you. Now, let's focus back here on the
Speaker 3: original point, which is the story that I saw from
Speaker 3: CBS Sacramento about the smoke shops and how a study
Speaker 3: found that a good majority of the products sold there
Speaker 3: are not supposed to be sold. For more on this,
Speaker 3: we go to CBS in Sacramento.
Speaker 5: High Crimes in Sacramento. College researchers just went undercover looking
Speaker 5: for dangerous drugs in local smoke shops. They say more
Speaker 5: than half of the stores they surveyed were selling contraband
Speaker 5: over the counter. Thanks for staying with us here at
Speaker 5: ten thirty Las Moortacov. We have all been inside a
Speaker 5: convenience store, right and seeing the different products on the
Speaker 5: shlves behind the counter, But how many are legal? Well,
Speaker 5: two med school students decided to find out. Walk with
Speaker 5: me over to Ashley Williams she's here getting answers on
Speaker 5: what prohibited products they found.
Speaker 6: Actually, yeah, so Tony. These college students are studying to
Speaker 6: become medical doctors one day, and they're getting an early
Speaker 6: start trying to protect public health. New research showing banned
Speaker 6: substances are being sold in Sancramento stores.
Speaker 3: It's like the wild West, essentially, there's no regulation. It
Speaker 3: was and again this is the most overregulated state except
Speaker 3: for certain industries where it's not at all.
Speaker 2: And do you remember the story. We did it a
Speaker 2: few weeks ago.
Speaker 3: It's funny, I remember exactly where I am sometimes when
Speaker 3: I hear something for the first time, and I believe
Speaker 3: I was because this was just a few weeks ago. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was walking around the streets of Toronto, because when
Speaker 3: I'm on vacation and i'm still working, usually I do
Speaker 3: all my show prep walking around whatever city i'm in,
Speaker 3: whether it be Santa Fe, whether it be San Francisco,
Speaker 3: whether it be Tronto. And I remember exactly where I
Speaker 3: was when I heard this wild story. In Sacramento, there
Speaker 3: was a moratorium on smoke shops, and some legislation got
Speaker 3: past that said, you know what, we will allow you
Speaker 3: to construct more smoke shops if they also sell health food,
Speaker 3: And apparently the definition of health food was if you've
Speaker 3: got a couple of rotten bananas.
Speaker 2: Now we can operate.
Speaker 3: And the amount of smoke shops in Sacramento exploded, and yeah,
Speaker 3: nobody was going there to buy health food. Although it's
Speaker 3: interesting a lot of these insane products that are being
Speaker 3: sold at these stores, they're all marketed as health food
Speaker 3: and dietary supplements, because dietary supplement can be a vast, vast, vast,
Speaker 3: unregulated category of product containing all kinds of things that
Speaker 3: you have no idea what it is you're ingesting. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you right now. You know who did a
Speaker 3: fantastic deep dive on this subject, John Oliver. If you
Speaker 3: really want to know about the crazy things that are
Speaker 3: sold at smoke shops and at gas stations, just search
Speaker 3: on the YouTube for John Oliver gas station drugs. It
Speaker 3: is a fascinating thirty minutes se shocking.
Speaker 6: Kayla Dvote and you lend Zoo are pre med college
Speaker 6: students working with the nonprofit group Youth Forward. This summer,
Speaker 6: they conducted a random survey of sixteen Sacramento smoke shops
Speaker 6: looking for Cradam seven. Oh magic mushrooms and nitrous oxide.
Speaker 3: Wait, you can get shrooms at the smoke shop now, oh,
Speaker 3: twenty three year old me? What have killed to hear
Speaker 3: this story?
Speaker 6: Which are prohibited intoxicating product?
Speaker 3: All of these are technically banned for recreational sale and
Speaker 3: possession in California.
Speaker 1: Nine.
Speaker 3: I mean, screw the pot if you can sell shrooms
Speaker 3: and NOAs and kratum, which is like a synthetic opiate,
Speaker 3: Like damn, this is the candy store right here, and
Speaker 3: these are all over the place. Nobody is buying tobacco
Speaker 3: at these stores.
Speaker 7: And out of the sixteen, over fifty percent had these substances,
Speaker 7: and that was just a major concern for me.
Speaker 6: The results were published in a thirteen page report. This week,
Speaker 6: They presented their findings to the Sacramento City Council.
Speaker 7: Our goal is to reduce harm caused by addiction and
Speaker 7: overdose in our community.
Speaker 6: Researchers say the band products can be dangerous to use.
Speaker 7: Addiction to any of these drugs can lead to serious
Speaker 7: brain damage, death and serious health complications.
Speaker 3: Including the nitrous oxide, which you would imagine, wouldn't that
Speaker 3: be like a controlled substance that you can only buy
Speaker 3: if you're like a licensed dentist, But no, you can
Speaker 3: buy it supposed to use it for recreational purposes, but
Speaker 3: you can buy it at a smoke shop.
Speaker 2: What the hell?
Speaker 3: All the crazy things we did, that whole story about
Speaker 3: how we're trying to regulate the kind of tires you
Speaker 3: can buy. We spend so much time on that, But
Speaker 3: when it comes to things that can actively harm our
Speaker 3: community because some people are dumb enough to buy this stuff,
Speaker 3: we just don't seem to look the other ways.
Speaker 6: CBS thirteen reached out to some of the stores about
Speaker 6: the survey results. The manager at Royal Smoky tells us they'd.
Speaker 2: Pull that's a legit name all.
Speaker 6: The prohibited items off.
Speaker 2: It's a gift and vape shop.
Speaker 6: The shelves last month. The group Youth Forward says these
Speaker 6: type of prohibited sales are troubling because many of the
Speaker 6: smoke shops are within blocks of schools, including Royal Smoky,
Speaker 6: which is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, there's all kinds of regulations as to
Speaker 3: how close to a school or a park you can
Speaker 3: be if you're a licensed marijuana shop. But when it
Speaker 3: comes to the smoke shops that are selling not tobacco,
Speaker 3: but all these other illegal drugs. Yeah, that's fine. It's
Speaker 3: just why if it's not the theory that you know,
Speaker 3: maybe everyone's not buying into that we're trying to make
Speaker 3: sure the commercial real estate bubble pops, then why is
Speaker 3: it that city attorneys and lawmakers don't want to crack
Speaker 3: down on this. There's just something really strange that's going
Speaker 3: on with smoke shops.
Speaker 6: Crossa street from Smith Elementary.
Speaker 4: With it being so accessible, I can't imagine that there
Speaker 4: aren't some numbers of students that are getting access to
Speaker 4: these illegal substances.
Speaker 3: Kayla, and you Lyn, I mean especially because you want
Speaker 3: to talk about all of the handwringing that went on
Speaker 3: for years and years and years about the vapes and
Speaker 3: how the packaging on the vapes and the flavors of
Speaker 3: vapes were meant to addict children. You should look at
Speaker 3: the packaging on the mushroom chocolate bars, look at the
Speaker 3: packaging on the nospar, look at the packaging on creative
Speaker 3: what have you. All of this stuff is targeted toward
Speaker 3: dumbass teens.
Speaker 6: Are now calling on Sacramento City leaders to increase enforcement efforts.
Speaker 3: This is kind of like a blind spot in the city,
Speaker 3: and I think that's part of the reason why our
Speaker 3: research is so important.
Speaker 7: There unhealthy and they shouldn't be sold at all.
Speaker 6: They certainly uncovered quite a bit there well. Last month,
Speaker 6: Governor Knwsom announced that more than sixty seven hundred CUM
Speaker 6: related products were confiscated during a five month statewide enforcement
Speaker 6: expert Tony.
Speaker 5: A couple of things come to mind. Why I took
Speaker 5: met students to discover this and not officials, And secondly,
Speaker 5: the future for these young med students credit right right, absolutely,
Speaker 5: all right, Ashley, thank you.
Speaker 3: So there you go, just a little dip into the
Speaker 3: window of insanity. That is what should be a super
Speaker 3: highly regulated industry.
Speaker 2: Everyone seems to be looking the other way, and it's.
Speaker 3: Med students doing their own survey that find all all
Speaker 3: kinds of illegal activity at licensed businesses. Feel like there
Speaker 3: should be somebody in elected office that wants to champion
Speaker 3: this issue. Or maybe I'm in the minority. Maybe it's
Speaker 3: not a big deal that you can buy shrooms and
Speaker 3: nitrous oxide and practically heroin, but it's not called heroin
Speaker 3: in K two or or cradam what have you, stuff
Speaker 3: that you can overdose from. Maybe it's fine that you
Speaker 3: could just buy that in your average corner store. That's
Speaker 3: on every corner block in the San Fernando Valley. AYB,
Speaker 3: I gotta get out of here. It's the News Blitz
Speaker 3: with Randy Wang on KABC.
Speaker 2: It's the News.
Speaker 3: Blitz with Randy Wang on TOC Radio, seven ninety KABC. Well,
Speaker 3: how exciting is this? Seven ninety KAB welcomes Alison Krause
Speaker 3: and the Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas with special guest
Speaker 3: Theo Lawrence at the Pacific Amphitheater on August twenty ninth.
Speaker 3: Tickets are on sale now at pacamp dot com. But
Speaker 3: right now collin number nine at one eight at eight,
Speaker 3: seven ninety five two to two two gets a pair
Speaker 3: of tickets to the show. This is a post fair concert.
Speaker 3: Tickets furnished by the Pacific Amphitheater. Good luck dialing. If
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Speaker 3: so at Randy Wangradio.
Speaker 2: At gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: Kerrie writes in you do realize that the Sherman Oaks
Speaker 3: Galleria has never had full occupancy since it's reopened some
Speaker 3: twenty odd years ago. The Starbucks over there recently closed.
Speaker 3: Freedis is gone, so many open spaces to lease. And
Speaker 3: to top that off, they're building another retail condo mall
Speaker 3: just up the block. That new condo retail space at
Speaker 3: the new Trader Joe's across the street from another Trader Joe's.
Speaker 3: There's only two stores there. Trader Joe's in a very
Speaker 3: expensive Australian smoke shop. Maybe we need another smoke shop there.
Speaker 3: You know, the Galleria is always a fascinating one to me.
Speaker 3: You know, I grew up in the valley. I remember
Speaker 3: just barely going to the Galleria pre earthquake. Of course,
Speaker 3: the Galleria was forever immortalized as the mall in Fast
Speaker 3: Times at Ridgemont High. But you know, even when I
Speaker 3: used to go to that mall a lot because that
Speaker 3: was the movie theater, that was the arc Light.
Speaker 2: That was like the place to go to to see
Speaker 2: a movie.
Speaker 3: This is before all the theaters were doing big reclining chairs.
Speaker 3: The idea the thing was you go to the arc Light.
Speaker 3: And remember how the thing with arc Light was they're
Speaker 3: not gonna waste your time with thirty minutes of previews.
Speaker 3: Well that went away, but for a while that was
Speaker 3: like the only place where you could also get a
Speaker 3: drink beforehand, and they had a Buffalo wild Wings when
Speaker 3: we used to frequent that a lot, big fan of that.
Speaker 3: I used to love Buffalo wild Wings, but it always
Speaker 3: fascinated me. How that is like prime real estate on
Speaker 3: Ventura Boulevard and Supulvida and the vast majority of that
Speaker 3: mall has always been empty. There's like, you know, some cooked, crooked,
Speaker 3: fake community college in there. There's a movie theater, there's
Speaker 3: a gym, there's maybe one or two restaurants the DSW,
Speaker 3: but there's no real stores in there. It is the
Speaker 3: strangest thing to me. Maybe they've just made it too expensive.
Speaker 3: It's it's an interesting concept. I just got this email
Speaker 3: in I believe this is a AI generation of the
Speaker 3: highest and best use of real estate property, Randy. We
Speaker 3: learned in business school that highest and best used HABO, Hey,
Speaker 3: we use that term here at cumulus is the reasonable, probable, legal,
Speaker 3: and optimal use of a property for vacant land that
Speaker 3: results in the highest market value and economic return subject
Speaker 3: to tangible and intangible jurisdictional constraints. HABOO dictates what a
Speaker 3: property should be used for, not what it's used for.
Speaker 3: Right now, I had here that a city or jurisdiction
Speaker 3: can add constraints in order to assolve a broader problem,
Speaker 3: say a need for more housing, but the jurisdiction and
Speaker 3: its stakeholders should not overly interfere in letting the market
Speaker 3: and its decision makers, which include investors, not only contractors
Speaker 3: and developers, decide on highest and best use the five
Speaker 3: core tests. To qualify as the highest and best use,
Speaker 3: the potential must pass four sequential tests. Legally permissible that
Speaker 3: applies with zoning laws, building codes, and deed restrictions, coordinating
Speaker 3: with the jurisdiction's objectives. Recognizing that a permit to build
Speaker 3: may never materialize without working with the the authority having
Speaker 3: some jurisdiction over the permit, like a county or of a city,
Speaker 3: give the jurisdiction something they want among their municipal objectives,
Speaker 3: like a small public park at the edge of a
Speaker 3: department complex. Is it physically possible, must match the size, shape,
Speaker 3: and soil and access limits. Is it economically or financially feasible.
Speaker 3: Must produce enough income to value at cover a building
Speaker 3: and operating costs. Is it maximumly productive out of all
Speaker 3: feasible options. It must yield the highest net return and
Speaker 3: land value. Why it matters in development. It redefines old assets.
Speaker 3: An aging warehouse and a booming residential zone may be
Speaker 3: worth more demolished than operated. It guides investment developers use
Speaker 3: Haabuu when decide to what to rezone, tear down to
Speaker 3: build higher density projects, and it changes over time, shifting
Speaker 3: neighborhoods are now new highways, concerted old farm fields, and
Speaker 3: a commercial retail land. The build environment remains as built
Speaker 3: for many decades following construction, so these decisions should not
Speaker 3: be made without serious and lengthy consideration. That all is
Speaker 3: very interesting. It still fascinates me when you have that
Speaker 3: property that I talked about on woodleyand Victory, where both
Speaker 3: of the retail slots have been vacant for years. The
Speaker 3: only person making money on that parking lot is the
Speaker 3: Leo's taco truck, and I can't imagine they're paying that
Speaker 3: much to the landlord to park their truck there to
Speaker 3: get their alpast store tacos. So in that specific situation,
Speaker 3: I would be very curious what is the highest and
Speaker 3: best use of this commercial real estate lot, because I
Speaker 3: would think it would be to tear it down because
Speaker 3: advertising this massive sign that for lease and zoned for
Speaker 3: potstore hasn't worked.
Speaker 2: It's just it's confusing to me.
Speaker 3: And when you have certain spaces where the only tenants
Speaker 3: are obvious criminal organizations, smoke shops and massage parlors, is
Speaker 3: that truly the highest and best use of that property?
Speaker 3: And if it is, maybe the local leaders need to
Speaker 3: change what those incentives are. Thank y'all so much for
Speaker 3: listening to the show. Check out the Accountability podcast right now.
Speaker 3: Go to Johnny Don't Like dot Com. That's Johnny Don't
Speaker 3: Like dot Com. It's the news Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 3: on Talk radio seven ninety KABC