Speaker 1: It is the John Phillips Show at Johnny's on vacation.
Speaker 1: He'll be back on Monday. It's Randy Wang here and
Speaker 1: the phone number to join us is eight hundred two
Speaker 1: two two five two two two one eight hundred two
Speaker 1: two two five two two two. You can email us
Speaker 1: at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com, or
Speaker 1: my personal email is Randy Wang radio dot substack dot com.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com. The
Speaker 1: substack is Randywangradio dot substack dot com. That's where I
Speaker 1: have all of the show prep for today, all twenty
Speaker 1: two stories that I picked out that are important things
Speaker 1: that you need to know going on in the state
Speaker 1: of California. We've only got a three hour show and
Speaker 1: then I have the other one hour show. We can't
Speaker 1: cover everything, but I put everything up there at Randywangradio
Speaker 1: dot substack dot com. All the stories going on in
Speaker 1: Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, in the
Speaker 1: Central Valley that you need to know about. And I
Speaker 1: do a full recap of all of those stories every
Speaker 1: day at five o'clock on the KABC News Blitz. You
Speaker 1: can hear it in Southern California on seven ninety KABC,
Speaker 1: and if you're in the Bay Area, you can stream
Speaker 1: it at KABC dot com. Our next guest, and I
Speaker 1: don't use this term lightly, is a true hero in
Speaker 1: the city of Los Angeles because he is on a
Speaker 1: mission to clean up La one trash bag at a time.
Speaker 1: You can go to his website and find out everything
Speaker 1: that he's doing at Cleanla with Me dot org Wan
Speaker 1: Nala of Cleanla with Me. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Yeah, it's it's a pleasure to
Speaker 2: be here, and thanks for having me at your show.
Speaker 1: So Wand for people that don't know you, don't know
Speaker 1: your story, tell us about your background and how you
Speaker 1: got into the world of deciding to pick up all
Speaker 1: the trash yourself in La.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: I moved to Los Angeles sixteen months ago from Virginia
Speaker 2: looking for an investment for my tech company. When I
Speaker 2: got here, I started driving all around, you know, going
Speaker 2: like north to east, east west, and I see trash everywhere.
Speaker 2: So it kind of shocked me because when I was
Speaker 2: in Virginia and I'm Ecuadorian. Backing home, you don't see
Speaker 2: this type of trash on the street parks at this everywhere,
Speaker 2: you know, so that kind of shocked me. And because
Speaker 2: I used to see every year street and sidewalk clean.
Speaker 2: And I was five weeks here in Los Angeles and
Speaker 2: I decided to start cleaning, you know, because it's It
Speaker 2: was a lot of things, you know, because I moved
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles with a dream to try to build
Speaker 2: this tech company. And then I had my wife also
Speaker 2: I was praying it, but there are back back then
Speaker 2: they would live be backing in Ecuador. And then my son,
Speaker 2: you know, born in February, and it was a lot
Speaker 2: of things. I got to calm with money in when
Speaker 2: I was three weeks in Los Angeles, so you know,
Speaker 2: start start cleaning and then could keep going cleaning. For me,
Speaker 2: it was like a trap and I was really enjoying.
Speaker 2: So that's how I get involved in trying to make
Speaker 2: a cleaner straits of Los Angeles, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, we definitely need it. Even though
Speaker 1: this is such an expensive city to live in and
Speaker 1: everyone who lives here pays exormitant sales taxes and property taxes,
Speaker 1: business taxes, what have you. The city of La does
Speaker 1: not pick up the trash that is illegally dumped all
Speaker 1: over and this city is filthy.
Speaker 2: Yes. When I when I started, you know, doing the cleanups,
Speaker 2: I didn't know have to. I was, you know, I
Speaker 2: post on social media and I was asking people because
Speaker 2: I was leaving. I started with parts. You know, I
Speaker 2: start cleaning up with the park. That was easy because
Speaker 2: I would clean the park and I would just leave
Speaker 2: the trash bus rid there by the trash can and
Speaker 2: they would come up and pick it up. But then
Speaker 2: I going into the streets and then you know, part
Speaker 2: mean Hollis, and then I was like, I need to
Speaker 2: know how I can dispose of this trash because I
Speaker 2: didn't know, I'm new, and then people started giving the information.
Speaker 2: I got to call three one one up and you
Speaker 2: know and put the request there. But it was a mess,
Speaker 2: to be honest, because I had a lot of problems
Speaker 2: with three one one up. I was putting the requests,
Speaker 2: they were not coming to pick it up the trash,
Speaker 2: and then the homeless come and open the bags and
Speaker 2: the trush was all over again. So many times I
Speaker 2: got to go back and re clean it out sput
Speaker 2: you know, and and you know, it was kind of
Speaker 2: a little bit, you know, I was like, Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: doing the world, just come and pick it up the trash.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean you were doing the hard part.
Speaker 1: You were picking up the garbage, you were sort of it,
Speaker 1: you were putting into bags and just having the City
Speaker 1: of La respond to the app that they tell everyone
Speaker 1: to use three one one and they don't do a
Speaker 1: damn thing, I know.
Speaker 2: And it was like that. So then I used to,
Speaker 2: you know, go back and I will used to another video,
Speaker 2: said hey, I put a request, why you do not
Speaker 2: you know, why you're at the La city l sentitation,
Speaker 2: why three one one is not come and pick it
Speaker 2: up the trash? And then they will come and you know,
Speaker 2: and I will talk to them, all the officials, all
Speaker 2: the websites, all the social media page, and they will
Speaker 2: start doing it. And then, you know, more and more
Speaker 2: and more I went on news. I was complaining between
Speaker 2: one one up. I was like, why don't you come,
Speaker 2: just pick it up? And eventually now when I put
Speaker 2: a request to live it or not, it used to
Speaker 2: take about a week, two weeks to come and pick
Speaker 2: it up my trash. In these days they do next day.
Speaker 1: That That is definitely an improvement, But like so many
Speaker 1: things with the City of La, the way that you
Speaker 1: get an improvement is you have to unfortunately embarrass the
Speaker 1: city into doing their job.
Speaker 2: I see, that's the only way to do it. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to do this, you know, in bars officials.
Speaker 2: I'm used to something else. You know, do the officials
Speaker 2: do the job. We don't even have to do this.
Speaker 2: And East Coast, you know, I was twenty years living
Speaker 2: in DNB area and then back home, same thing. But
Speaker 2: here you have to go on social media tell them
Speaker 2: and then eventually they start doing it. But they don't
Speaker 2: like me at this time.
Speaker 1: Now, one, when you're doing these cleanups all throughout the
Speaker 1: city of Los Angeles, I'm sure people are curious to know,
Speaker 1: like what are the things that are being illegally dumped?
Speaker 2: Is it food?
Speaker 1: Is it stuff that with people where people are living at?
Speaker 1: Is it stuff from contractors? What are you finding at
Speaker 1: all these dump sites?
Speaker 2: So the most of illegal dumpiness contractors, food venders, fruit venders.
Speaker 2: And eventually people want to leave in the you know,
Speaker 2: they're moving from one apartment to another, partment buildings, I
Speaker 2: mean one building to another building. They are living, you know,
Speaker 2: all the furniture. They don't want to say they just
Speaker 2: live it outside I'm not really sure if those people
Speaker 2: doesn't know they can put a request in three one
Speaker 2: one one three one one or the three one one
Speaker 2: doesn't come and pick it up. So what happened is,
Speaker 2: you know, when they leave all the furniture outside, the
Speaker 2: homeless come and pick it up and just take it
Speaker 2: with them. That's right. You see mattresses, chairs, tables everywhere
Speaker 2: because the homeless are taking all these choices being sitting outside.
Speaker 2: But you know it's also the people. When people see
Speaker 2: a trash, other people coming just put in their normal
Speaker 2: people I'm talking about normal people. Just they see trash,
Speaker 2: they just come and put it right there. Like, come on,
Speaker 2: everybody has to do their part, you know, everybody to
Speaker 2: have a better city, everybody has to do the part.
Speaker 2: But the most illegal illegal dumping is contraction foot vendors
Speaker 2: and fruit vendors, and it's disgusting.
Speaker 1: I gotta imagine. I know in the produce district there
Speaker 1: are just pallettes and pallettes and palettes of fruit and
Speaker 1: vegetables that are dumped on a street corner every single day,
Speaker 1: and we obviously know where it's coming from. But it
Speaker 1: seems that there just really isn't any enforcement going on
Speaker 1: for people doing this.
Speaker 2: It should be like it should be many like you know,
Speaker 2: I'm right now, I was going to dump the trash
Speaker 2: that I picked it up. You know, I gotta I
Speaker 2: gotta one truck donate, but one one guy from Lawn Beach.
Speaker 2: He don't pickup truck. So now I can put the truck,
Speaker 2: put all the garbage and back on my truck and
Speaker 2: go dumped. So I've been emailing back and forth with
Speaker 2: the city, city Hall, the mayor offices, and public workers
Speaker 2: over I don't know every forty fifty emails, I think.
Speaker 2: And I asked them for grant. I asked them for funding.
Speaker 2: I asked them some help so I can stop paying
Speaker 2: the fees, you know, because one hundred and fifty doors
Speaker 2: every time when I go dump this trush. Uh. And
Speaker 2: then also I'll find out you know that right now,
Speaker 2: I I can go dump at the city fills eighty
Speaker 2: seven dollars. But it should be, you know, it should be.
Speaker 2: I don't know a program where people said, Okay, you
Speaker 2: know you're gonna go damp over there, We're gonna give
Speaker 2: you fifty percent, So that will they will eliminate all
Speaker 2: the illegal dumping with the contractors. You know what's the
Speaker 2: problem because they're not making enough money, so they don't
Speaker 2: get enough money to go and dump the trush because
Speaker 2: of one hundred and fifteen dollars.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: But if they said, okay, you're just gonna pay fifty percent,
Speaker 2: I think all the contractors they're gonna go and dump
Speaker 2: br You know, there should be more programs, or it
Speaker 2: should be cameras, because one time I wasn't I was
Speaker 2: not looking for parking lot by city hall, and by
Speaker 2: accident I was standing by by the you know, bus line,
Speaker 2: so they took they took a photo, se me a
Speaker 2: bill for three hundred dollars, I have to say. And
Speaker 2: now I was like, why don't you have these cameras
Speaker 2: for people who are doing illegal dumping? You know why
Speaker 2: they don't do that? Why did not you know? I was,
Speaker 2: I know I was in the wrong place, but I
Speaker 2: was like for two minutes and I got to take
Speaker 2: a three hundred dollars secret. But they don't do any
Speaker 2: any other enforcement for the people who is illegal dumping.
Speaker 2: There's many hottest spots, many had spots that have cleaned
Speaker 2: it two weeks. It's even worse.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're totally right about that, and we have the
Speaker 1: technology to do this. We know where the spots are
Speaker 1: because the same spots seem to pop up over and
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. But it seems that
Speaker 1: two things can be true at the same time. Enforcement
Speaker 1: is very, very very seldom. And what you see in
Speaker 1: cities where the cost of dumping trash is so prohibitively
Speaker 1: expensive is some people just say screw it, I'm dumping
Speaker 1: on the street. The same exact situation is going on
Speaker 1: in the city of Oakland, and Oakland has some of
Speaker 1: the most expensive trash fees in the entire state of California.
Speaker 2: Yes, so it should. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 2: some people and on the contraction there's a lot of
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of competition. Because I've been twenty
Speaker 2: years doing contraction, but I don't do anymore, so I
Speaker 2: know it should be a program where, you know, the
Speaker 2: contractor look at discount. And also for the food vendors,
Speaker 2: because the food vendors get when they get the license,
Speaker 2: they should be like, you know what, this is the
Speaker 2: place where you can go and dump all the waste
Speaker 2: and it's fifty percent discount, and there's many things to
Speaker 2: do it. They just don't want to do it. I
Speaker 2: think I'm thinking, like they don't want to do it
Speaker 2: these things because they can do it so many they
Speaker 2: go you know, the office, the city the Leela City Hall.
Speaker 2: They can do it these things very easy, you know,
Speaker 2: and they just they see me as like a tread
Speaker 2: like I'm the guy. I'm the bad guy. You know, No,
Speaker 2: like you guys, you have to do it. There's many
Speaker 2: other programs. I've been at city hall. I talked two
Speaker 2: three times. I went there, like you have to do this.
Speaker 2: You have to fix the three one one up. It's
Speaker 2: easy for me to use it, but many people doesn't
Speaker 2: know how to use it and they haven't. It's still
Speaker 2: people han problems with the request because at this time
Speaker 2: right now, I have one hundred addresses that I have
Speaker 2: to go and clean and the people are sending me
Speaker 2: on my social media. But because they had to put
Speaker 2: a request on three one one up and they never
Speaker 2: show up, three four, five months, they never show up.
Speaker 2: So people now I'm the three one one up for
Speaker 2: LA like they're sending me all their requests. You know.
Speaker 2: It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: Well, and it is just wild what has been going
Speaker 1: on at here you know, you make a really good
Speaker 1: point about the street vendors and that you know, these
Speaker 1: are supposed to be permitted and regulated businesses, and we
Speaker 1: have so many of them that if they're using any
Speaker 1: kind of oil or grease, they're sometimes just dumping that
Speaker 1: on the side of the road and then that's going
Speaker 1: into our sewer system, that's going into the ocean.
Speaker 2: Exactly. And I'm a Latina. I'm not against anybody that.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody needs to make money, but it should
Speaker 2: be some regulations for everybody, you know, the small businesses
Speaker 2: or they are paying so many taxes, rent and all that,
Speaker 2: and you know, it should be on other regulations for
Speaker 2: everybody that's selling stuff in the streets. And I'm not
Speaker 2: against that, but it should be regulations with trash fees, taxes,
Speaker 2: you know, all this kind of stuff, because they are
Speaker 2: they are making the cities. It's so sad to say this,
Speaker 2: you know, because sometimes it's my people in my community,
Speaker 2: in a community. But I'm not again, I'm not against them,
Speaker 2: but it should it should be education. It should be
Speaker 2: like when they get the permit, when they're getting you know,
Speaker 2: the permits to do a vendor, we can get really
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like I think one hundred and twenty dollars.
Speaker 2: Then you can get a permit to sell the stuff
Speaker 2: on the street. At that time, when they get in
Speaker 2: the permit, it should be some regulations like you know what,
Speaker 2: if you do this, we're going to cancel your your
Speaker 2: license or your permit, things like that. That is going
Speaker 2: to help to educate to the people, you know who
Speaker 2: with illegal dumping everything on the streets, and it's and
Speaker 2: it's really really bad. Actually it's really bad because everywhere
Speaker 2: I haven't picked it up, meat, chickens, and there's stinks,
Speaker 2: been there for weeks, fruits, been there for weeks and
Speaker 2: really stinks. And you know, it's not just illegal dumping.
Speaker 2: We got to understand that it's not just illegal dumping.
Speaker 2: When we have all that trush right there, it brings rats,
Speaker 2: it's not healthy, it may look bad the city. It's everything.
Speaker 2: It's not just a try. It brings many other problems
Speaker 2: for the city, the health. It just makes looks really
Speaker 2: ugly to the city. So people, we have to understand
Speaker 2: those things, you know. And I'm trying to see if
Speaker 2: I can educate my community, my Latino community, you know, everybody,
Speaker 2: because I even't seen people driving cars, really expensing cars,
Speaker 2: just putting the window down and then just allway the
Speaker 2: trash on on the on the highways, you know, on
Speaker 2: the freeways. I was like, what's going on with the
Speaker 2: people in California. This is this is like I don't
Speaker 2: even like you know, the Goblin says we are the
Speaker 2: four economy in the world, but it doesn't look like
Speaker 2: the people. The officials is like a mess. Everything is
Speaker 2: a mess. I'm sorry, but it is it truly, you.
Speaker 1: Know, it really is. We're speaking with one Nala. His
Speaker 1: website is clean la with me dot org. Now, there
Speaker 1: was a really strange moment a few months ago where
Speaker 1: as Mayor Karen Bess is looking to seek re election,
Speaker 1: she held a state of the City address and she
Speaker 1: actually gave you a huge shout out and says how
Speaker 1: she wants to partner with you and talked about what
Speaker 1: a great job you're doing. But ultimately, if the city
Speaker 1: was doing its job, you wouldn't have to be doing this.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what at the first place, right, I won't
Speaker 2: have to do this if they were doing you know
Speaker 2: the word. But after the uh, you know, when I went,
Speaker 2: you know, the mayor current bass and buy me to
Speaker 2: the sale of the city. They give me a big
Speaker 2: shot out. They said they're gonna help me, they're gonna
Speaker 2: support me, they're gonna partnership with me. But after that,
Speaker 2: we've been backing for like thirt emails. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: The other one is all the addresses that I have
Speaker 2: on my list on my data, that's all the one
Speaker 2: because they want to go and clean it so I
Speaker 2: don't have to play to clean and again, I've been
Speaker 2: emailing with seven eight people at city Hall, public workers
Speaker 2: and other members from the city Hall over to fort emails.
Speaker 2: The last email that we I had with them, it
Speaker 2: was about six months ago. Six weeks ago, they said
Speaker 2: they're gonna look into grants or funding for clean alay
Speaker 2: with me. I haven't here since then. So if city
Speaker 2: said they want to support me, you know it will
Speaker 2: be finalist one. You know what, We're gonna help you
Speaker 2: with the fees to them. You don't have to pay
Speaker 2: any fees for dumping, you know. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 2: saying give me a couple of millions. I'm just asking
Speaker 2: for simple things, you know, and they're not. They're not helping.
Speaker 2: I don't know because to be honest, I don't understand
Speaker 2: sometimes what they want to be a part of them.
Speaker 2: They try to I said, no, I want to be
Speaker 2: doing clean lives with me. I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: part of China. We can partnership, yes, go great, but
Speaker 2: they all they want again, they want all my addresses
Speaker 2: that I have in my phone because I think they
Speaker 2: want to go and clean it before I got And
Speaker 2: it's been happening already because about two months ago I
Speaker 2: started posting like, Okay, I need help. I'm going to
Speaker 2: be in these addresses tomorrow. I'm going to be cleaning
Speaker 2: if anybody has some time come and helped me, and
Speaker 2: just what the city is showing up and cleaning the
Speaker 2: fire'clock in the morning, five am in the morning, they
Speaker 2: show up and clean it. Oh wild.
Speaker 1: They're like they're trying to be in competition with you
Speaker 1: right now. At the same time, they're the ones that
Speaker 1: say they wanted to partner with you, but they obviously
Speaker 1: don't like that. You are shining a light on what
Speaker 1: is a complete failure in the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Now one if there's anybody listening that wants to help
Speaker 1: contribute to your organization or join one of your mingas
Speaker 1: where a bunch of volunteers come and clean up together.
Speaker 1: How can they do that?
Speaker 2: So they can go on my website clean Alive with
Speaker 2: me dot org. Or they can go on my social
Speaker 2: media and all the platforms same name, clean alay with me.
Speaker 2: There is a link tree with all my links, donation links,
Speaker 2: all my other social media links, every everything they can
Speaker 2: find there and then they can go They can go
Speaker 2: from there and then I post every I was posting
Speaker 2: every Wednesday with the addresses for the mingas on Saturday
Speaker 2: from nine to eleven. But now because the cities are
Speaker 2: doing this now, I'm not putting every Thursday every Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Sometimes on Thursdays. Sometimes I do on Friday because people
Speaker 2: know already mean that we have minasit Saturday, so they
Speaker 2: just wait for me to see the address and then
Speaker 2: just come, you know. So now I post sometimes on Thursday,
Speaker 2: sometimes on Friday morning.
Speaker 1: The website is cleanla with me dot org, Cleanla with
Speaker 1: me dot org. Well, the city's not going to give
Speaker 1: you the proper things that you deserve, but I'll do
Speaker 1: it here. Thank you so much one for what you
Speaker 1: were doing every single day with your literal hands, trying
Speaker 1: to make La, a cleaner place, clean La with me
Speaker 1: dot Org wan Nala, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: us today.
Speaker 2: No, thank you so much for having me. I was
Speaker 2: a pleasure and let's make a change. Hopefully in a
Speaker 2: couple of years we can see a different only wan Nala.
Speaker 1: Everybody you like to comment on what you just heard,
Speaker 1: give us a call. Eight hundred two two two five
Speaker 1: two two two one. Eight hundred two to two two
Speaker 1: five two two two. It's Randy Wang here on the
Speaker 1: John Phillips Show. Let's take some calls. Eight hundred two
Speaker 1: two two five two two two one eight hundred two
Speaker 1: two two five two two two. Let's start with Anca
Speaker 1: in La Onca. Hello, Hi, Randy.
Speaker 3: I think it's the first time I'm talking to you,
Speaker 3: but I'm a long time listener. I talked to John
Speaker 3: and I talked to a lot of different al Rantel
Speaker 3: and over the years that I've been listening, I've been
Speaker 3: in La now forty six years this year and originally
Speaker 3: from Germany. And what this man was just describing, I
Speaker 3: felt every inch and frustration that was coming from him,
Speaker 3: because it's like kind of disbelief. Its just totally disbelief.
Speaker 3: When I drive through the streets. When I see things
Speaker 3: and I said, this is impossible. People living in a
Speaker 3: bus stop. Uh you know, but like like building a
Speaker 3: little house. And I passed by free day my grandkids
Speaker 3: on their way to kindergarten.
Speaker 5: The guy a naked.
Speaker 3: Guy rolling in the middle of on the way to school.
Speaker 3: A La tijara. This is a nice neighborhood. This is
Speaker 3: like single family homes. And people don't understand that's what
Speaker 3: LA was built for, single family homes. It's fairly small streets.
Speaker 3: And when they start building and developing, and this is
Speaker 3: not the infrastructure for LA at all. It just might
Speaker 3: bring in more people and more people into condos, but
Speaker 3: it really makes life miserable for everybody else. It took
Speaker 3: me like five minutes to get out of my neighborhood.
Speaker 3: Now we're stuck from here to the ninety freeway just
Speaker 3: to go over to like it's up there to be
Speaker 3: ten minutes away. Okay, people are cutting each other off.
Speaker 3: It starts early in the morning. Just the vibe is gone,
Speaker 3: Like Ali had a vibe from the from the ocean
Speaker 3: to sunset where you could go. I was actually just
Speaker 3: driving from there and few things that you know, so
Speaker 3: there that I remember, like the Piper Room and some
Speaker 3: of those things that I don't know, you know to anymore.
Speaker 3: But I tried to the whole city and I'm seeing
Speaker 3: all of these encampments, some of the most biggest cities
Speaker 3: for auser's sake.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you're You're totally right, and I love
Speaker 1: what you said there. The vibe in LA is just gone.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. I'm born and raised here
Speaker 1: and I feel it every single day. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the call. Appreciate it. When I go to
Speaker 1: other cities, I feel a vibe. San Francisco has a vibe,
Speaker 1: Santa Fe has a vibe. La does not have a
Speaker 1: vibe anymore. It is a loose collection of neighborhoods and
Speaker 1: there's a giant mountain in between all of it. And
Speaker 1: the only part of it that technically you could call
Speaker 1: the city is downtown LA. And that is some scary
Speaker 1: stuff right there. It's going to Thomas in Lakeport. Thomas, Hello, Thomas,
Speaker 1: what hey, you want to talk?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I'm up here in Lake County. And some
Speaker 6: time ago, the bord of superviruses. We're trying to include
Speaker 6: the garbage fees and the property taxes, and I think
Speaker 6: they're trying to do it again. I think it failed
Speaker 6: some years ago and but they're trying to do it again.
Speaker 6: But I think that would be one helpful solution to
Speaker 6: put it on your people's tax bill. So they've put
Speaker 6: the garbage out.
Speaker 1: Well, and we've seen an increase in they do that
Speaker 1: here in Los Angeles. In fact, they just increase the
Speaker 1: trash fees. They're doing that in San Diego, although they're
Speaker 1: getting sued over it. But if you're going to charge
Speaker 1: the owners more, you got to start picking up the garbage.
Speaker 1: That's what people want to see. I think people wouldn't
Speaker 1: mind paying for it if the streets were clean. But
Speaker 1: in LA the streets are filthy. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for the call. Appreciate it again. I wasn't in any
Speaker 1: of the bad neighborhoods, but for the most part, San
Speaker 1: Francisco look pretty damn clean. Let's go to Henry and Whittier. Henry, Hello, Heydy,
Speaker 1: who are you doing great?
Speaker 4: I'm a chief engineer in downtown LA at one of
Speaker 4: the high rise buildings, and that man is a saint.
Speaker 4: You know. Karen Bass and the rest of the board,
Speaker 4: they should be ashamed of themselves that this guy's got
Speaker 4: to come from Virginia and clean up our city. You know,
Speaker 4: I told him, whenever he's around my building and he's
Speaker 4: got trash, I always I let him throw it in
Speaker 4: my dumpster. But you know, we need more guys like him,
Speaker 4: or actually we need Karen Bath to do her job.
Speaker 1: You're totally right about that. We should not need a
Speaker 1: wan Nala, but I'm so glad that we have one.
Speaker 1: And at the very least, when the city makes him
Speaker 1: a spectacle at a Karen Bass campaign event and wants
Speaker 1: to talk about it, they want to partner with him.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't they at the very least waive the dumpster
Speaker 1: fees for the guy who's doing their job for.
Speaker 4: Them exactly and donate trash bags to him as well.
Speaker 1: You're totally right. Thanks so much for the call, Henry,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Let's go to Armando in La Armando.
Speaker 5: Hello, Randy, how you doing man? Glad to see your
Speaker 5: handling that show so perfectly like a professional.
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, onan Noelle, Yeah, gosh, man, look at these
Speaker 5: doing for the city of Los Angeles and he's emon
Speaker 5: trying to make contact on three one one, and I
Speaker 5: feel his pain because you don't know how many times
Speaker 5: we have to go through that just to get our
Speaker 5: parking provincial preferential permits honored that we pay for that.
Speaker 5: There's no parking enflorcement. Never it's a good saying, Colin,
Speaker 5: and you wait hours for you know, you're calling under
Speaker 5: ninety nine. By the time they answer the phone, it's
Speaker 5: like midnight, you know, So no kudos to him, Cools
Speaker 5: to you, Randy, appreciate it. You're doing a great job.
Speaker 5: You need five hours show five hour.
Speaker 1: I'm already doing four. Thanks so much for the call. Armando,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Three one one. It's almost like by design,
Speaker 1: and it's not unique to Los Angeles. San Diego has
Speaker 1: something called the get It Done app And guess what
Speaker 1: they don't get it done. Let's go to Wes and Willetts. Wes.
Speaker 7: Hello, how why are you Randy?
Speaker 1: Doing great?
Speaker 7: That's great. I'm glad to hear that. Hey, when I
Speaker 7: was when I came in this world, Uh, we did
Speaker 7: have we did have some frigid arm good transportation. Back
Speaker 7: then it was rail We had the railway and we
Speaker 7: haven't got it anymore. And I know why too, because.
Speaker 3: Of the UH.
Speaker 7: Because of their oil and rubber companies. They want to
Speaker 7: put buses on there, and we we launched our railway.
Speaker 1: It's something that's wild to think about. But you know,
Speaker 1: not that long ago in human history. We're talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, less than one hundred years ago. Los Angeles
Speaker 1: was known as the city with the best public transit
Speaker 1: in the country with the red cars.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and we had the we had the old street
Speaker 7: cars and everything else, and it just it just went
Speaker 7: to the dogs.
Speaker 1: You're totally right. It is fascinating to watch. If anyone
Speaker 1: has those old videos of what La looked like back then,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for the call. Or you can watch
Speaker 1: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is a hilarious movie that
Speaker 1: is also a history lesson about the end of the
Speaker 1: Red Car. Let's go to Steven seem Valley. Steve, Hello, Hey, Randy.
Speaker 8: First of all, I about spit my water out when
Speaker 8: you said the thing about the high speed bus. That
Speaker 8: is I mean, my god. Second thing is I hope
Speaker 8: Spencer wins. I sold my house in twenty twenty two
Speaker 8: in North Hollywood, and last October, for some reason, it
Speaker 8: burned to the ground.
Speaker 2: Holy jow.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 8: Yeah, fifty years we lived in that house, my family
Speaker 8: and I did, and it's a pile of ashes now.
Speaker 8: And that's they put those little, those tiny homes in
Speaker 8: the park behind where I used to live. And my
Speaker 8: neighbor tried to tell me, Oh, it's going to help
Speaker 8: the homeless, and I said, no, it's going to draw more.
Speaker 8: And I was right.
Speaker 1: You were totally right. You got out at the right time. Steve,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the call. Appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1: Doesn't look like he wants to get on these high
Speaker 1: speed bus that's going to be on the five Freeway someday.
Speaker 1: At least it'll get done before the high speed rail.
Speaker 1: But yes, would anybody feel safe on a high speed bus?
Speaker 1: We'll see. Hey, if you'd like to email us, you
Speaker 1: could do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Mark writes in on the street dumping that's
Speaker 1: going on, LA should really take the title of the
Speaker 1: city of Dumpy. The city should change. Every should charge
Speaker 1: every contractor a dumping fee when they go to get
Speaker 1: their demolition or construction permits. The fee is based on
Speaker 1: the scale of the project. They would get a voucher
Speaker 1: to local dumps to get rid of the junk, and
Speaker 1: street food vendors should have to pay a two hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month dumping fee to dump their old food
Speaker 1: at designated places the food can be used for mulch.
Speaker 1: That is the most common sense thing I have ever heard,
Speaker 1: which tells me that our politicians are never going to
Speaker 1: go for that. But yes, based on this is the
Speaker 1: one takeaway that you should have from all the great
Speaker 1: things that we heard from wan Nala and Clean La
Speaker 1: with me. The majority of the garbage is put there
Speaker 1: by contractors and sidewalk vendors, street vendors. You have contractors
Speaker 1: that don't want to pay the dumping fees, and you
Speaker 1: have street feed dumping their old food, their spoiled food,
Speaker 1: or the food they don't sell right there on the street.
Speaker 1: We know in West Hollywood you have street vendors dumping
Speaker 1: their grease right there on the street as well. We
Speaker 1: should have mechanisms to enforce that because we're not. These
Speaker 1: aren't the piles of trash that are caused by the homeless.
Speaker 1: That's a different thing, and that's also a disaster. But
Speaker 1: a lot of the illegal dumping that we're seeing in
Speaker 1: the city of La is being caused by people that
Speaker 1: are supposed to have licenses and permits. Mile writes in
Speaker 1: at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. So
Speaker 1: it takes an immigrant from Ecuador to clean the trash
Speaker 1: in LA. So basically the city is paying people to
Speaker 1: do nothing. Thank God, I live in Orange County. You
Speaker 1: know what this show is sometimes Sometimes this show specifically
Speaker 1: for everybody that listens that doesn't live in the city
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, or for our Bay Area listeners if
Speaker 1: you live near Oakland but you don't live in Oakland.
Speaker 1: You know, even if you live in San Francisco. I
Speaker 1: feel like sometimes doing news about the city of LA
Speaker 1: and all of the dysfunction that we see. It's really
Speaker 1: painful if you happen to be people that live in
Speaker 1: the city of La, which I do. Inexplicably, I still
Speaker 1: live in the City of La. If interest rates were lower,
Speaker 1: that might change. But it's almost like we are the
Speaker 1: the radio version of what Married with Children was when
Speaker 1: that show first got on the air in the late
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, because when the Bundies were on TV, you
Speaker 1: knew you were gonna laugh, but also you knew that
Speaker 1: no matter how bad your day was going, no matter
Speaker 1: how bad you thought your family was, you knew that
Speaker 1: you weren't as bad as the bundies. And if you
Speaker 1: live in Orange County, if you live in Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura,
Speaker 1: even if you live in San Francisco and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, San Francisco's got a lot of problems, well
Speaker 1: LA's got a lot more problems. Well this is still
Speaker 1: really cool. It's not as exciting as yesterday, but I
Speaker 1: still really like it. It is. It is a nice little thing.
Speaker 1: So yesterday I told you that I got an email
Speaker 1: near the end of the show of somebody that videotaped
Speaker 1: themselves listening to us while they were driving on the
Speaker 1: Golden Gate Bridge. And in the over a year that
Speaker 1: it's been since we've been live in San Francisco, it
Speaker 1: never hit me until I saw it that people can
Speaker 1: be listening to my voice right now while they're driving
Speaker 1: on the most iconic bridge in the world. So that
Speaker 1: was pretty darn cool and I really appreciate that. And
Speaker 1: it's always nice to know that people are actually out
Speaker 1: out there listening to the things that I am saying,
Speaker 1: because physically I am talking to myself in a small box.
Speaker 1: It looks a little crazy if you think about it.
Speaker 1: But Chris writes in at Randy Wang Radio at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com, and it's not San Francisco. But he did
Speaker 1: send me a video of what it looks like when
Speaker 1: he's listening to the show in his house with his
Speaker 1: lovely patio outside of Vegas. And yes, it looked very hot.
Speaker 1: That's cool, that's great. It's not San Francisco, it's not
Speaker 1: the Goldenigate Bridge. But you know what, if you want
Speaker 1: to videotape yourself while you're listening to the show, show
Speaker 1: us what your background is while you're listening to the show.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of fun. I'd like to see it.
Speaker 1: You can email me at Randy Wangradio at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: That's my personal email address, but all day long I'm
Speaker 1: checking both email addresses. The latest email to come into
Speaker 1: Johnny Don't like show at gmail dot com. Will writes
Speaker 1: in with the subject line as if, as if the
Speaker 1: illegal alien unlicensed contractors and the illegal alien sidewalk salmonella
Speaker 1: stands would cough up a dumping fee when the whole
Speaker 1: point of LA is to make it a dumping ground. Well,
Speaker 1: there you go. Now I gotta say I'm here to
Speaker 1: criticize Gavin Newsom every chance we can, because Gavin Newsom
Speaker 1: has been quite a disaster as governor of California. Gavin
Speaker 1: Newsom has increased the budget by over fifty percent, and
Speaker 1: nothing is really any better in the state of California.
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom is the king of major proclamations with little
Speaker 1: follow through. But there is one little nugget in Gavin
Speaker 1: Newsom's budget may revise presentation that I think is a
Speaker 1: good idea. So whenever a politician, even it's one that
Speaker 1: you don't like, has a good idea, it's okay to
Speaker 1: say that it's a good idea. I wish it was
Speaker 1: something that maybe they did a long time ago. But
Speaker 1: they're talking about trying to make it easier for small
Speaker 1: businesses to open and operate. And if you've ever tried
Speaker 1: to incorporate in the state of California, if you ever
Speaker 1: try to start a business an escorp in the state
Speaker 1: of California, even if you make no money, you've got
Speaker 1: to pay eight hundred dollars to file for that business license.
Speaker 1: You've got to pay eight hundred dollars for that fee
Speaker 1: to be operating as a business in the state of
Speaker 1: California every single year. In the new budget revise, they're
Speaker 1: looking at changing a couple of tax giveaways to the
Speaker 1: bigger corporations, and they want to for small businesses in
Speaker 1: the first two years. You can get that fee for
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars instead of eight hundred dollars. That's not much,
Speaker 1: but that's something you know, A very very, very very
Speaker 1: very long time ago, I was I guess you could
Speaker 1: call me a small business owner. So when I was
Speaker 1: in between radio jobs, I started a podcast all on
Speaker 1: my own. This is way before you know there was
Speaker 1: any money in podcasting, and believe you me, I found
Speaker 1: that one out the hard way. But you know, we
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a listenership. We had a
Speaker 1: lot of people that used to listen to ninety seven
Speaker 1: point one, the FM talk station, which now is going
Speaker 1: to be a sports station. Hey, if they flip it
Speaker 1: one more time, it'll be talk again. And we were
Speaker 1: doing live events and getting people to show up and
Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun. And a buddy of
Speaker 1: mine told me, you know, you're really starting to become
Speaker 1: a business. I mean, most of the money we were
Speaker 1: getting was, like you know, PayPal donations, which pretty much
Speaker 1: everyone now has like a Patreon or a substack, what
Speaker 1: have you. Although my substack is one hundred percent free.
Speaker 1: And I was encouraged to incorporate, like you should become
Speaker 1: a corporation, you should become a business, and you know
Speaker 1: you're you're gonna have so many write offs and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have so many advantages to you. And I thought,
Speaker 1: all right, this thing's only going to go one way.
Speaker 1: We're gonna move upward. It's gonna be great. So became
Speaker 1: a business, got our s Corp. Paid that eight hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and that year we made no money. When it came
Speaker 1: to money that we could actually claim as the business,
Speaker 1: we made less than the eight hundred dollars filing fee.
Speaker 1: So it was quickly decided that this was pointless. There's
Speaker 1: no money in podcasting. So we ended the company. Still
Speaker 1: continue to do the podcast just as a you know,
Speaker 1: sole proprietorship, because again we were only making money on
Speaker 1: listener donations. And at one point I created a website.
Speaker 1: I was like way ahead of Mark Zuckerberg. I created
Speaker 1: a website where people could buy fake real estate on
Speaker 1: the website that we would shout out at the end
Speaker 1: of the podcast that is a real thing, and we
Speaker 1: made a little bit of money doing that, but never
Speaker 1: made enough money to incorporate. But if that annual fee
Speaker 1: was four hundred dollars instead of eight hundred dollars, maybe
Speaker 1: I would have kept it going, and maybe I would
Speaker 1: have stuck around on the podcasting game long enough to
Speaker 1: where now they're making all the money. Hey, I was
Speaker 1: a pioneer in that industry. Thank y'all so much for
Speaker 1: listening to this show. Johnny's back on Monday. But I've
Speaker 1: been having just such a blast doing these three hours,
Speaker 1: and now you know my routine. I'm getting on the freeway.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna suffer on the four h five. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have a little lunch, and then I'll be back on
Speaker 1: the air on KABC at five o'clock right after Frank Motech.
Speaker 1: If you're in Southern California, seven ninety k ABC, that's
Speaker 1: all you got to do. If you're in the Bay
Speaker 1: and you want to hear my five o'clock show where
Speaker 1: I do the California Report, just go to KABC dot
Speaker 1: com and you can stream it or iheartworks too. It's
Speaker 1: Randy Wang here on the John Phillips show