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Speaker 1: Can if I am six forty. You're listening to the

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Speaker 1: John Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We're on from

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Speaker 1: one to four and then after four o'clock John Cobel

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Speaker 1: Show on demand on the iHeart app. And in just

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Speaker 1: a moment we're going to talk to Christopher Legras. Chris Lagra.

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Speaker 1: We've had them on before, and it's about the Healthy

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Speaker 1: Streets Initiative. Oh I hate that name, and this is

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Speaker 1: more nonsense from these bike advocates are part of this group.

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Speaker 1: We'll find out who's connected to all this. These are

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Speaker 1: fanatical lunatics who want to get every car off the

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Speaker 1: road and forbid us from driving by making driving so

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Speaker 1: difficult we all surrender. And I don't know do what.

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Speaker 1: It's crazy, but this actually is on the ballot. Somehow

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Speaker 1: they get funding to get signatures and get this done.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, Chris Lagras, and he's got a partner on this,

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Speaker 1: John Russo, who we were scheduled to have on two,

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Speaker 1: but John's going to come on another day. And they

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Speaker 1: wrote the official opposition argument that will be on the ballot.

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Speaker 1: And this is about all the stupid bust lanes and

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Speaker 1: protected bike lanes and pedestrian lanes and road diets and

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Speaker 1: those stupid ballards, so you can't, you know, make a

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Speaker 1: left turn or go through an intersection the way you want.

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Speaker 1: It's they started this in twenty fifteen, and because of

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Speaker 1: our efforts and your efforts, the road diets were stopped.

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Speaker 1: If you remember that famous case with Mike Bonnen and

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Speaker 1: mar Vista. We got the road diet reversed. So the

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Speaker 1: mobility it was called Mobility Plan twenty thirty five, and

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Speaker 1: in the first now eight years, only three percent of

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Speaker 1: the plan has been implemented. So that so all the

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Speaker 1: mobility advocates are whining and complaining.

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Speaker 2: All right, Chris Legras is here, Good to see you.

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Speaker 2: How are you.

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Speaker 3: I'm good, It's good to be here. Nice to see

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Speaker 3: in person. Happy New Year, Yeah, Happy New Year.

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Speaker 1: You're going to have to give a basic primer for

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Speaker 1: people listening, because all this stuff is sneaking up on us,

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Speaker 1: and people don't know what's coming if they don't pay

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Speaker 1: close attention. So this is going to be on the

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Speaker 1: bar ballot March fifth. It's got one of those deceptive names,

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Speaker 1: healthy streets. If this passed, what would it mean practically

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Speaker 1: for all of us in the LA area.

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Speaker 3: Well, it actually dovetails perfectly with what you were talking

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Speaker 3: about a few minutes ago, this notion of incrementalism. They've

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Speaker 3: been doing these quote unquote healthy streets complete streets incrementally

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Speaker 3: now for ten years, and most Angelino's at this point,

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Speaker 3: when you're driving to work, when you're driving to drop

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Speaker 3: your kids off at school, you've noticed those green bike

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Speaker 3: WANs up here. They seem kind of innocuous at first. Uh,

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Speaker 3: make it east, you're the bike, Sure, why not. That's

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Speaker 3: the first step. That's the incrementalism. Then the next step

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Speaker 3: is the road diets, and then the next step is

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Speaker 3: the bus lanes, and ultimately we're really pushing the eighty

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Speaker 3: five percent of Angelino's rich pour all levels in between,

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Speaker 3: who primarily get around using their personal vehicle. This is

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Speaker 3: the war on cars, and they're doing it again incrementally.

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Speaker 3: This mobility initiative, which they deceptively call the Healthy Streets

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Speaker 3: for All initiative, is incrementalism on steroids. What it would

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Speaker 3: mandate is that anytime the city repairs a stretch of

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Speaker 3: road longer than six hundred and sixty feet it's basically

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Speaker 3: one city block. They would be mandated no oversight, no

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Speaker 3: community outreach, no even standard engineering review. They would be

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Speaker 3: mandated to install road diets, bike lanes, complete streets. We

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Speaker 3: don't know what it would all entail. We just know

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Speaker 3: that they're going to be doing it one block at

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Speaker 3: a time. So, for example, you could be drive to

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Speaker 3: work down here on Olive and it'll be almost like

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Speaker 3: whack a mole. Here's a lane. There's a lane, here's

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Speaker 3: a lane. There's a lane. Every block could conceivably look

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Speaker 3: a little different. That has massive implications for public safety

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Speaker 3: people just driving around every day. If you've been driving

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Speaker 3: the same route to work or school for five, ten,

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Speaker 3: twenty years, and then one morning you wake up and

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Speaker 3: that street looks radically different and there's all these new

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Speaker 3: ballards and cement curbs and medians and all sorts of

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Speaker 3: other obstacles. First of all, it's incredibly distracting. They call

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Speaker 3: it safe, right, They say that, well, we're putting in

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Speaker 3: all of these obstacles and all of these features to

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Speaker 3: make it safer for people on bicycles and pedestrians, et cetera. Well,

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Speaker 3: any cognitive psychologist worth their salt can tell you that

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Speaker 3: the more stuff that you have to look at as

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Speaker 3: you're rolling down the street, whether it's twenty miles an

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Speaker 3: hour or forty miles an hour, distracts you from the

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Speaker 3: task of driving your car safely. So this is incrementalism

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Speaker 3: on steroids. The idea is they've had a lot of pushback,

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Speaker 3: is you and I well know, over the years from

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Speaker 3: these bigger projects, these gargantuan Plio del Rey than this

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Speaker 3: boulevard on into the night?

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the pri Plio Delray mar Vista projects. Yes, hit

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Speaker 1: such a wall that it scared them away. They went

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Speaker 1: and hid for a few years, and then they came

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Speaker 1: up with this idea. By the way, we're live on

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Speaker 1: Instagram now in case you want to watch it. Oh,

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Speaker 1: Chris and I speaking about each other. I would have

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Speaker 1: put on my making. Yes, well, they're only going to

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Speaker 1: see the back of my head. You're the star today.

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Speaker 1: Oh look, so you know what you're just talking about,

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Speaker 1: how incredibly confusing and distracting it is. You've been to

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Speaker 1: Santa Monica. I mana, you live it. Holy crap, what

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Speaker 1: the hell's happened to that city? And it seems all

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Speaker 1: in the past year. And I don't know if I

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Speaker 1: could describe just how confusing it is to drive. They

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Speaker 1: have so many different colored lanes and stripes and crosswalks

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Speaker 1: that intersect and diagonally with each other. There flashing lights,

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Speaker 1: they've gutted a lot of parking spaces, clearly impossible to park.

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Speaker 1: Of course, he used the parking garages. And there's crazy

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Speaker 1: homeless people that are snorting meth inside them.

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Speaker 2: I especially, that's madness.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of reflectors, there's a lot of flashing lights,

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Speaker 1: and I because of all the lights and the reflectors,

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Speaker 1: when somebody's actually crossing the street, I can't see them.

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Speaker 1: Almost motor guy down because the contrast of all the

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Speaker 1: lights in the darkness was terrible. Is that what we're

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Speaker 1: looking at in LA is what they have in Santa Monica?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely? Santa Monica has always been ahead of the curve.

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Speaker 3: They've been the canary in the coal mine. Whether it's

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Speaker 3: this density of this transit oriented nonsense that's now taking

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Speaker 3: over the city and County of Los Angeles, Santa Monica

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Speaker 3: embraced that about twenty years ago. Mayor is Denny Zaine,

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Speaker 3: and he was one of these first kind of ymbies

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Speaker 3: as they call themselves. He now runs a nonprofit called

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Speaker 3: Forward LA, which is behind of course, of course he does, right.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: I hate the term nonprofit, the profiteering nonprofits, exactly, exactly,

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Speaker 3: So Santa Monica is if you want to see what's

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Speaker 3: coming to your town. You're a part of LA you're

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Speaker 3: part of LA County. Come visit Santa Monica one weekend

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Speaker 3: and you'll see. Now, let me tell you one of

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Speaker 3: the consequences. And you know, we sometimes get accused by we,

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Speaker 3: I mean those of us who oppose this madness of

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Speaker 3: being anti bike er, anti this, or anti safety, and

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Speaker 3: they love to call us traffic safety deniers.

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Speaker 2: And I just love these euphemisms they conjure.

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Speaker 1: Yes, well it's an echo of Holocaust deniers. So it's

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Speaker 1: really supposed to be. And how especially.

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Speaker 3: Right now, just as an aside, how gleeping offensive is that?

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Speaker 3: So they redid And by the way, you know who's

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Speaker 3: in charge of planning in Santa Monica these days is

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Speaker 3: actually mc escher kid, the artist who had all those

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Speaker 3: crazy stares, you know, like the college.

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Speaker 2: Coasters, right, yes, yeah.

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Speaker 3: So let's take a really specific, really discreete example though,

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Speaker 3: the intersection of the California Incline when you come up

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Speaker 3: from pch and Ocean avenue to go to downtown Santa Monica. Yes,

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Speaker 3: that used to be a pretty basic four way stop.

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Speaker 3: Crosswalks on the north, south, east, and west, no other confusion,

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Speaker 3: no other distractions. Nevertheless, Santa Monica identified that intersection as

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Speaker 3: a high risk intersection that needed one of these bad

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Speaker 3: acid trip treatments. How did that work out for? According

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Speaker 3: to CHP data, for ten years before they installed the

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Speaker 3: MCSHER design, there were fewer than two accidents per year

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Speaker 3: in that intersection, which, when you think about it, considering

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Speaker 3: who's using those particular roads, how many confused distracted tourists

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Speaker 3: drive that every weekend during the summertime, during tourist season.

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Speaker 3: So that's actually a shockingly good safety record. Yes, nevertheless,

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Speaker 3: they did this treatment. And I'll give you a picture

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Speaker 3: that you can post on the website just so people

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Speaker 3: can see how absolutely bonkers it is. There had been

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Speaker 3: one bicycle accident in the ten years before the first

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Speaker 3: year after it went in, there were three, the second

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Speaker 3: year there were two. Just last summer, a woman was

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Speaker 3: hit in that intersection, ended up with a compound fracture

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Speaker 3: in her leg, bones sticking out of her leg, and

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Speaker 3: her dog was killed. None of that had ever happened.

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Speaker 3: Despite the incredible range of road users you have, the tourists,

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Speaker 3: the bicyclists, the recreational people, what have you, it had

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Speaker 3: been this incredibly safe intersection because it was not confusing.

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Speaker 3: And I'll tell you one other thing. When they were

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Speaker 3: repaving Ocean Avenue last year, for about three or four months,

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Speaker 3: there were no stripes whatsoever. It was just a blank

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Speaker 3: slab of tarmac for about two miles from I remember

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Speaker 3: that safest street in the city. Safest street in the

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Speaker 3: city because I can see that bicyclist three blocks ahead.

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Speaker 2: When I've got the ballards and.

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Speaker 3: As you alluded to, the reflectors and the Gerbil wheels

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Speaker 3: and whatever else they're putting in, I don't often see

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Speaker 3: that bicyclist on practically on top of them is as

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Speaker 3: you described. I assume you were driving down Wilshire Bubblehart,

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Speaker 3: which is west.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I drive this whole area frequently. I don't live

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Speaker 1: all that far from from that neighborhood, and so I'm

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Speaker 1: always driving around there and it's gotten progressively dramatically actually

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Speaker 1: more difficult, just in the last few months. And the

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Speaker 1: other night I was driving and I actually stopped. It's like,

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Speaker 1: what the hell am I looking at here?

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Speaker 3: It really is that dangerous? Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree,

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Speaker 3: And at night it's even worse. Ironically, because it is worse,

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Speaker 3: they have created and we should put a little photocollage

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Speaker 3: up on the KFI website so people can really Yeah,

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Speaker 3: they've created these islands of reflectors, right, yes, So you're

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Speaker 3: driving down the street, you can actually there are intersections

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Speaker 3: John where you can actually not even really see the

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Speaker 3: road in front of you because the lights are if

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Speaker 3: especially if it's raining, these reflectors are reflecting. Then you

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Speaker 3: got the crosswalk light flashing, and and it's it's incredibly well.

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Speaker 1: They also have created these cement curb islands to separate

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Speaker 1: a machine for that parking from the bike lanes.

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Speaker 3: The city of Santa Monica bought a machine. I don't

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Speaker 3: know if it was a half a million dollars a

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Speaker 3: million dollars it is. It is a specialized machine that

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Speaker 3: drives down the street and like poops out those concrete medians, jeez,

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Speaker 3: so that they can do it in ten minutes. In

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Speaker 3: ten minutes, they just all appear to all right running behind.

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Speaker 3: We want to continue with this when we come back.

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Speaker 3: We have Chris Lagron and we got to get more

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Speaker 3: specifically into this terrible, terrible thing that's going to be

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Speaker 3: on the ballot in Los Angeles March fifth, and it's

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Speaker 3: called the Healthy Streets Initiative, and it's gonna make just

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Speaker 3: driving around the boulevards the main streets in Los Angeles

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Speaker 3: a disaster.

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Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am

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Speaker 5: six forty.

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Speaker 1: We are talking with Chris Lagras he's a journalist and

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Speaker 1: you're involved in all kinds of groups.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well turn this mic on. Oh here we go.

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Speaker 3: I'm here in my capacity as a co director of

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Speaker 3: Keep Ell Moving. We're the ones that got the left art.

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Speaker 1: Right ply del ray. That was the road diet that

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Speaker 1: we fought Mike bonanover and we all won that round.

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Speaker 1: Road diets are coming everywhere if this mobility plan passes.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's called Healthy Streets LA. It's an initiative.

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Speaker 1: It's on the ballot March fifth, which is the primary

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Speaker 1: ballot here in Los Angeles, and this would lead to

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Speaker 1: bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian protected areas, road diets, lane shrinkage,

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Speaker 1: you name it. And uh, Chris Lagras And is a

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Speaker 1: partner on this initiative, John Russo are writing the official

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Speaker 1: opposition that will be on the ballot. All right, talk

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Speaker 1: about what happens to our daily life if this thing

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Speaker 1: passes March fifth. What becomes of our commute every day?

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Speaker 3: Well, it'll depend on how much work is planned for

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Speaker 3: your community. But the upshot again is every time a

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Speaker 3: road project is done in your community. Now there are

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Speaker 3: a couple of small carve outs for things like you know, routine.

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Speaker 2: Sewage and other maintenance.

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Speaker 3: But anytime any kind of project comes to more than

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Speaker 3: six hundred and sixty feet in other words, more than

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Speaker 3: a block, you will.

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Speaker 2: Get a new bike lane. You will get a new

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Speaker 2: center island.

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Speaker 3: You will get a new curve ball, you will get

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Speaker 3: some new obstacle that wasn't there before. It'll go in

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Speaker 3: without any public notice. It'll just show up one day.

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Speaker 3: And that's true, by the way, even of our first responders.

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Speaker 3: I've talked to many many firefighters, not just in LA

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Speaker 3: but around La County and frankly around even the country

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Speaker 3: who they say, we found out about this when we

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Speaker 3: showed up for a shift one morning. There was a

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Speaker 3: captain up in Oakland who had to actually completely redesign

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Speaker 3: the way his vehicles leave and enter the fire station

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Speaker 3: because of what they did in front of his fire

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Speaker 3: station by putting in all of these new, allegedly safe obstacles.

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Speaker 3: So what will happen is it'll be like a minefield

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Speaker 3: will come to your because, like I said, it'll be

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Speaker 3: one block this week, one block the next month, a

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Speaker 3: couple blocks of the month after that.

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Speaker 1: It's an intentional maze they're putting up to make driving difficult. Yes,

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Speaker 1: because they have this obsession with getting all the cars

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Speaker 1: off the road.

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Speaker 3: We're all going to be taking buses and getting stabbed,

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Speaker 3: We're all going to be riding our bicycles and getting

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Speaker 3: run over by the buses, and we're all going to

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Speaker 3: be walking.

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Speaker 2: Have they noticed that?

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Speaker 1: Really, Nobody over the age of twenty five bikes for

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Speaker 1: obvious reasons. Right, How the hell would I bike from

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Speaker 1: the West Side to Burbank every day, up up up

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Speaker 1: the four h five.

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Speaker 3: Well, and I mean what I don't know. The endgame

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Speaker 3: is you won't. The endgame is you will only travel

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Speaker 3: as far as that bis. So it's called the fifteen

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Speaker 3: minute city. So going back to the quote unquote Healthy

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Speaker 3: Streets initiative, make it as difficult, inconvenient, and frankly unsafe

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Speaker 3: as possible to drive. Really, it's it's they want you

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Speaker 3: to cry uncle and say it's just gotten to be

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Speaker 3: too much, too expensive, look at what's happening with gas prices.

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Speaker 2: It's cetera.

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Speaker 3: I'm just going to give up and I'm going to

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Speaker 3: live my life riding transit, riding my bicycle, and I

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Speaker 3: will be limited to however far I can get within about.

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Speaker 2: Fifteen minutes shrink our lives. Yes, and that's a state law.

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Speaker 3: By the way, state transit funding increasingly is tied to

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Speaker 3: these fifteen minute city policies. So again, this is like

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Speaker 3: the very seed. This mobility plan, block by block is

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Speaker 3: eventually going to be every block and again to reiterate,

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Speaker 3: because they couldn't get it done because they pissed off

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Speaker 3: so many people with their road diets, with mar Vista,

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Speaker 3: with silver Lake, with van Eyes, with a foothill in

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Speaker 3: some theand to Hungary. I mean, we could go on

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Speaker 3: and on far into night, little piece by little piece,

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Speaker 3: over a period of years, until they choke the life

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Speaker 3: out of us. Precisely precisely, who are these people. They

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Speaker 3: are activists and they are the useful idiots for the

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Speaker 3: real power players in California, who are the real estate

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Speaker 3: developers and the people who finance them. And that's not

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Speaker 3: as secret, that's not some what why the real estate developers?

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Speaker 1: What's their angle here? So they could build gigantic apartment

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Speaker 1: and condo buildings.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, there's there's head spinning sums to be made. If

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Speaker 3: you're one of the developers who's got good relationships in

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Speaker 3: city Hall and Sacramento, you already know where the projects

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Speaker 3: are going in before they go in and you can

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Speaker 3: take advantage of them. So, for example, if you are

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Speaker 3: with it, if you're developing a project that's within a

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Speaker 3: half mile of a bus stop, not a bus line,

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Speaker 3: not a bus station, and bus stop, you can seek

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Speaker 3: parking exemptions. So you're going to build one hundred unit

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Speaker 3: apartment building that has no parking. The idea is everybody's

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Speaker 3: going to walk that half a mile and get on

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Speaker 3: the bus to get where they're going. And there are

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Speaker 3: hundreds of these buildings that have already been built and

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Speaker 3: or are under construction as we speak. I could send

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Speaker 3: you a list.

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Speaker 2: Of different explans.

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Speaker 3: They're missing the parking spaces zero. Now why do developers

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Speaker 3: love that? Because parking. That underground park working is one

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Speaker 3: of the single most expensive pieces of a new apartment building.

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Speaker 3: We just saved you x percent off of every project.

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Speaker 1: Is in the market going to reject that because most

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Speaker 1: people I know, if they looked at an apartment, even

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Speaker 1: if it was really nice, if it didn't have a

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Speaker 1: parking garage, they're not renting or they're not buying.

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Speaker 3: Their goal is to get as many young people to

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Speaker 3: buy into this so that when they get their first

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Speaker 3: apartment on Broadway next to the stupid train in Santa Monica,

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Speaker 3: and you're twenty two to twenty three years old, just

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Speaker 3: out of college, you may not have a car to

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Speaker 3: begin with. They want to lock people into this lifestyle,

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Speaker 3: then continue taking advantage of the state laws that allow

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Speaker 3: this kind of development centered on transits, centered on bike lanes,

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Speaker 3: et cetera, until we reach a tipping point in the market.

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Speaker 1: It's not so much about wanting a healthy environment a

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Speaker 1: green world, but it's about real estate developers wanting to

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Speaker 1: maximize the profit they can make on building these.

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Speaker 3: Yes, the decision has been made at the state level.

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Speaker 3: At the city level, the decision is made. It's locked

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Speaker 3: in the proverbial fixes in this is what development will

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Speaker 3: look like in the state of California in the future. Ultimately,

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Speaker 3: the goal is to eliminate single family zoning altogether. If

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Speaker 3: you're lucky enough to still have a single family house,

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Speaker 3: your next door neighbor may get a deal that they

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Speaker 3: can't refuse, sell for cash for fifty one hundred percent

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Speaker 3: over market value, and that single family home next door

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Speaker 3: now all of a sudden is eight units or ten units,

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Speaker 3: or however many they can get away with. So this

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Speaker 3: is I mean, I think the recurring theme, and it's

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Speaker 3: just kind of happenstance that you were talking about it

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Speaker 3: before I came in, is incrementalism. Every one of these bills,

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Speaker 3: every one of these initiatives, like the Healthy Streets initiative,

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Speaker 3: which your listeners I think already know they need to

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Speaker 3: vote against and tell all your friends to vote against it.

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Speaker 3: They're all part of this same policy that has been decided.

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Speaker 2: This is the YMBI they call themselves. Yes in my backyard.

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Speaker 2: This is the agenda, and it is.

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Speaker 3: Infected quite literally every level of policy making, of decision making,

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Speaker 3: of funding. This is why we have Mayor Karen Bass

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Speaker 3: who's constantly talking about how she's so excited that all

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Speaker 3: levels of government are now in lock step in addressing homelessness,

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Speaker 3: because what we're doing with homelessness is a piece of this.

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Speaker 3: The housing that we're building for homeless, and we'll do

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Speaker 3: a whole segment on that is absolutely in locksteps. So

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Speaker 3: the fixes in and it's up to us to your

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Speaker 3: listeners to educate themselves to realize that don't just read

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Speaker 3: the ballot.

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Speaker 2: Title healthy streets.

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Speaker 3: Who doesn't want healthy streets?

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Speaker 2: Sure, I'll vote for that. No, I can't.

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Speaker 3: That's how they got Prop forty seven pass.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Chris, I gotta go.

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Speaker 1: But we're going to be talking with you, talking with

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Speaker 1: you on a regular basis about all this, especially leading

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Speaker 1: up to this March fifth vote vote no on the

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Speaker 1: Healthy Streets initiative.

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Speaker 2: Can't stretch that enough. Vote early, vote off.

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Speaker 1: There is a lot going on beneath the surface that

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Speaker 1: none of us are aware of.

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Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AMC.

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Speaker 2: Right from one until four.

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Speaker 1: Boy, if you just missed the segment we did with

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Speaker 1: Chris Lagrath, and he's with a group that's trying to

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Speaker 1: stop this, this this road diet initiative.

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Speaker 2: My god, those things are back. This this is.

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Speaker 1: This is something that would jam up traffic all over

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Speaker 1: the City of Los Angeles forever. It's called Healthy Streets.

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Speaker 1: It's on the March fifth primary ballot in the City

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Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. You better vote no against that as

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Speaker 1: many times as you can. I mean, it's really bad.

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Speaker 1: It's everything we thought we fought off and buried back

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Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, I mean seven years ago, for God's sake, right,

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Speaker 1: it was Mike Bonnan, it was Plya del Rey, it

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Speaker 1: was mar Vista, it was Venice Boulevard, it was that

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Speaker 1: culvert boulevard, that whole stretch along ply Delray, And that

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Speaker 1: event scared Garcetti and Bonding for the rest of the decade.

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Speaker 1: And then the pandemic hit and whole the whole road

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Speaker 1: diet industry shut down because they had big goals in

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen to shut down city traffic and they only

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Speaker 1: got three percent of it accomplished. So now they're coming

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Speaker 1: back for more. And I you know, as fascinating as

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Speaker 1: Chris was on the air, he told me more stuff

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Speaker 1: off the air, we simply don't have time for. And

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Speaker 1: I also don't want to dump it all out in

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Speaker 1: one day because I want to be able to build

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Speaker 1: on this story over the next few weeks. So he's

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Speaker 1: going to be coming back regularly, especially over the next

404
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Speaker 1: couple of months leading up to March fifth, because you've

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Speaker 1: got to stop this evil. There are things going on

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Speaker 1: involving developers and politicians and these these wacko nonprofit bicycle

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Speaker 1: advocates and anti traffic, anti car advocates. You have no

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Speaker 1: idea of the rot in this city, in this state.

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Speaker 1: You have no idea about the maschinations going on and

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Speaker 1: the money that's going to be made. And it is

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Speaker 1: not about the climate, it's not about the environment. It

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Speaker 1: is about massive profits for real estate developers as they

413
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Speaker 1: join forces with the new Sums and the Basses of

414
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Speaker 1: the world to re engineer the city and create this

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Speaker 1: fifteen minute city idea. And I've seen this phrase around

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Speaker 1: now for a couple of years, and it's a real thing.

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Speaker 1: It's a real bedrock ideology that these people have to

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Speaker 1: make it so that you live, work, and your recreation

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Speaker 1: is all within fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes of your house.

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Speaker 1: And they want to shrink your life. They want to

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Speaker 1: force you to shrink your life because they're motivated by

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Speaker 1: money that they can make developers, developers who can build

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Speaker 1: massive apartment buildings, condo buildings, and the city is forcibly

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Speaker 1: rezoning single family neighborhoods. You don't know what's coming and you're.

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Speaker 2: Not going to like it.

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Speaker 1: So we're giving you a first warning here, which explains why. Well,

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Speaker 1: I've got several stories here. Let's see what I want

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Speaker 1: to start with. I want to They're all related. Everything

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Speaker 1: is related. You've heard that wealthy people are moving out

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Speaker 1: of the state. First it was the middle class, then

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Speaker 1: it was the wealthy because the middle class didn't like

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00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:25,840
Speaker 1: the quality of life, they didn't like the high cost

433
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,720
Speaker 1: of living and all the vagrants in the streets, the

434
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 1: smash and grab crimes. It's just this is an uncivilized state.

435
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,400
Speaker 1: It's an uncivilized city. And nobody else in the other

436
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 1: forty nine states putting up with this like we are. Well,

437
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:46,240
Speaker 1: we're also losing now educated people. Between twenty twenty one

438
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:50,719
Speaker 1: and twenty two, ninety one thousand people with advanced degrees

439
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:53,880
Speaker 1: moved into the state, but one hundred thousand left, so

440
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:59,600
Speaker 1: we actually lost nearly nine net loss of nine thousand

441
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: people with advanced degrees. Five years ago, this group was

442
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: much more likely to move in than move out. And

443
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: this is just in state migration. This doesn't count international migrants.

444
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:26,440
Speaker 1: And the reason for this is because graduate students generally

445
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: have higher paying jobs and the taxes hit them disproportionately.

446
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,959
Speaker 1: It's what we talked about earlier in the show. Forty

447
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,639
Speaker 1: five percent of high income earners pay I'm sorry, the

448
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 1: top one percent of high income earners pay forty five

449
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 1: percent of the taxes. The top ten percent of high

450
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,679
Speaker 1: income earners pay eighty percent of the taxes. So you

451
00:24:54,840 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: have high real estate costs, high mortgage, high taxes. And

452
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: in addition, whether you're rich, middle class, or wealthy, all

453
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: the crime, all the smash and grab robberies, and all

454
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: the homeless people affect everybody the same. And now what

455
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: they want to do is intentionally bollocks up the traffic

456
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:21,200
Speaker 1: to make it that much more difficult to get around,

457
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: as if your commute isn't long enough, and then they

458
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:29,639
Speaker 1: tell you to go take a bicycle. And now that

459
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: high income earners and graduate school earners can work more

460
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: often remotely, they're moving to more affordable areas. So Californians

461
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 1: are now paying double the national U haul rate to

462
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: escape to Texas and Florida. It's twice as expensive to

463
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 1: rent a twenty six foot truck at Anaheim and drop

464
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: it near Dallas Fort Worth. You want to move to Texas,

465
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 1: Let's say you want to go to a suburb of Texas.

466
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:14,439
Speaker 1: Keller was the example. Anaheim to Keller. It takes twice

467
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,200
Speaker 1: as much. Now, if you want to rent the same

468
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 1: drug from Dallas to Anaheim, it's half as much because

469
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 1: the demand for U haul trucks in California it's so

470
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: overwhelming that the price is double. The median household income

471
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:41,000
Speaker 1: of Keller is one hundred and sixty two thousand dollars

472
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:45,399
Speaker 1: a year. That's double the income in Anaheim of eighty

473
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 1: eight thousand. But the cost of living is much less.

474
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: People are earning more in Texas and paying less to live.

475
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: Here in California, we're paying way more.

476
00:26:59,160 --> 00:26:59,639
Speaker 2: To live.

477
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 1: And there's a story mention this Axios, which is a

478
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,639
Speaker 1: political website. Headline says gas prices are back down to

479
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: three dollars a gallon. I saw this and my head snapped.

480
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 1: It's like what And it's true. Average prices are at

481
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:20,360
Speaker 1: three to oh one across the country. And this includes California.

482
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 1: In fact, the average price dipped below three dollars last month,

483
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:30,160
Speaker 1: which hadn't happened in more than two years. They think

484
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:35,720
Speaker 1: gas prices might settle in the high two dollars per

485
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: gallon zone, which of course could affect the national election

486
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,639
Speaker 1: if people feel happier about the prices and all the

487
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,360
Speaker 1: inflation we've suffered from. Except in California, it's five bucks

488
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,679
Speaker 1: a gallon, at least at the four stations that I

489
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,200
Speaker 1: tried to stop at between Burbank on the West Side.

490
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: I looked at four different stations, it was five dollars

491
00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: a gallon. Just the policies in the state are terrible.

492
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: Going back to U haul, California is in fiftieth place

493
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:16,200
Speaker 1: for the second consecutive year, the most expensive rental trucks

494
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:21,080
Speaker 1: in the U haul chain. It is the number one

495
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 1: state for out migration. There are so many people leaving

496
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 1: California that it actually wrecked U Haul's ability to measure

497
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: because the company ran out of trucks to rent. U

498
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: haul would be able to do an estimate of how

499
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: many people are leaving versus how many people are coming in,

500
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: and they actually couldn't do it. As accurately this year

501
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 1: because there were no more trucks left in California to

502
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: rent and leave the state with.

503
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 2: This.

504
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 1: There's got to be I hate this word because you

505
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: hear it every five minutes, but there's just got to

506
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 1: be a recording. We can't collectively live this way indefinitely.

507
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: It's just God, it's got I've never lived in a

508
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 1: place where you had this much going in the wrong

509
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: direction and people continue voting in the same pattern. All right,

510
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: more coming up. Oh, in fact, we've got some health

511
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 1: food news.

512
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 2: I think.

513
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: I don't know if you actually consume this product. I'm

514
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: going to see, but everybody thinks it's healthy and it's

515
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 1: a better choice, and it turns out it's not.

516
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 4: That's a riveting tease. Huh, that's a riveting tease.

517
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:34,760
Speaker 2: Are you mocking me?

518
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 4: No, not at all.

519
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: Well, I just think a lot of this health food

520
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: stuff is who we I Okay, it's not better, it's

521
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: not healthier.

522
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 4: You're doctor co Belt, Well I know so much. Huh.

523
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 2: You know, I have just an elis adount of knowledge.

524
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 2: You are you're definitely.

525
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 5: Mocking You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI

526
00:29:58,760 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 5: A six forty.

527
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: John Cobalt on Demand is the podcast version that'll be

528
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:12,719
Speaker 1: posted after four o'clock on the iHeart app as well. Uh,

529
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: all right, Debra's got news at three, and then following

530
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: her news, we're going to talk with Janet Wynn from

531
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 1: Orange County. She is a state senator and she wrote

532
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 1: a piece in the Orange County Register very disturbing. You're

533
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:35,680
Speaker 1: going to be really upset. Apparently the the oc Animal

534
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: Care Shelter is a complete disaster and there's a lot

535
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: of dogs who are suffering, and they're being treated very badly,

536
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: shockingly bad conditions.

537
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 4: We need to go get them out of there.

538
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: I it's it's it's a really strange story. It's really disgusting. Actually,

539
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: they have a lot of money. They're twenty six million

540
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: dollar budget, they have one hundred and thirty seven employees,

541
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: and according to Jenet Win, the treatment of these animals,

542
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: and we'll get into details coming up, is just horrific.

543
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: It's just hard to believe. Now, all right, we've got

544
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: Now what's your stance on oat milk?

545
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 4: I have it almost every day in my coffee.

546
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have it almost every day. That's what I thought.

547
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:28,160
Speaker 1: I thought, Well, it says nutritionists are warning against oat milk.

548
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 1: One cup can have more sugar than two Crispy cream donuts.

549
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 4: If you didn't like, yeah, I can't believe that.

550
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 6: No, I don't taste it's not okay, My oat milk

551
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:44,360
Speaker 6: is not sweet.

552
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 1: One cup can contake it up to seventeen grams of sugar,

553
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 1: about as much as you're getting four Chips Away cookies

554
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 1: or two Crispy Cream donuts. Says here that oat milk

555
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: is popular with vegans. Yeah, has more fat in it

556
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: than traditional milk and less calcium, so you could be

557
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 1: set up for osteoporosis.

558
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 4: Fantastic, Okay, fine.

559
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 1: You could trip and fall and burst into pieces.

560
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 4: I'm gonna switch back to almond milk.

561
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 6: You made me feel so guilty when I had almond

562
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 6: milk or coconut milk.

563
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 4: Guilty you did.

564
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 2: Why did it make you feel good?

565
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 6: Maybe it was coconut milk. Remember the monkeys the slave

566
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 6: labor with oak. So then I stopped with the coconut

567
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 6: milk and I switched to oat milk. Well, now I'm

568
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 6: gonna have to go back, and then the almond milk.

569
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 4: You made fun of me.

570
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 6: Because of all the water we need for the for

571
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 6: the almonds.

572
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,479
Speaker 1: Does almonds take up like eleven percent of our state's

573
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 1: water exactly?

574
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 6: So I did the right thing, the ethical thing, and

575
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 6: I switched to oat milk.

576
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: And now, yeah, but you're still eating avocados and that's

577
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: run by the Mexican drug cartels. Well, okay, so you're

578
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: not that pure, it says. Oat milk has been touted

579
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 1: as a healthy alternative to dairy milk, but it has

580
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: a lot of sugar, a lot of carbohydrates, and a

581
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 1: lot of canola oil which can cause heart inflammation. They

582
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 1: analyze two hundred brands of almond, oat and soy milk.

583
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 1: You probably drink all this.

584
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 4: Stuff, right, I don't drink soy milk anymore.

585
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: And they researchers found that nine out of ten were

586
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,480
Speaker 1: nutritionally inferior to cow's milk.

587
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 6: Okay, but let me just say this. I don't drink

588
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 6: a glass of oat milk. I just have a little

589
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 6: bit and it's oat milk creamer in my coffee.

590
00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 1: Overall, the plant based milks, yeah, that's another thing. It's

591
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: not milk. There's no milk in a plant. This is

592
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 1: a made up turn. It's like a beyond Burger has

593
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 1: no burger meat in it. Overall, plant based milks had

594
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: one hundred milligrams less calcium, the mineral that is essential

595
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 1: for building and repairing bone tissue. The plant milks were

596
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: to contain only two grams of protein. Trader Joe's reduced

597
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: fat milk has fourteen grams of protein, So you're only

598
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 1: getting one seventh of protein you need.

599
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,280
Speaker 6: Well, you don't know, I have a lot of nuts.

600
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 6: Well that didn't sound right, but you know what I mean. No, really,

601
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 6: I don't my protein elsewhere.

602
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 2: The Stephen Hawking and now that is.

603
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 3: It really much?

604
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 4: There was no it was.

605
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 6: There was that earthquake that rattled my brain. What happened

606
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 6: when I was on the air.

607
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 2: You seem to have a lot on your mind today, do.

608
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: Well, it's it, says the oat milk, because it has

609
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 1: the sugar and the oils and the carbohydrates can increase

610
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 1: the risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. How about

611
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: all that?

612
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,760
Speaker 6: I will switch. Angel Martinez just sent me a message

613
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 6: saying to switch to coconut milk. So I'm going to

614
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 6: do that. As I said, I'm going to do that.

615
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 4: No more of this.

616
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,960
Speaker 1: See, the oats are processed into oat milk, and so

617
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 1: the starches in the oats are broken down into simple sugars,

618
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 1: and those simple sugars are are stripped of all fiber,

619
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 1: vitamins and minerals. They have no nutritional value, and they

620
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 1: can cause your blood sugar levels to spike and lead

621
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: to hunger pangs. Then you start eating more. Seems like

622
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: a disaster here.

623
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 4: It doesn't seem great, but there are alternatives.

624
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 6: So thank you, John.

625
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,959
Speaker 2: No drink you drink traditional cow's milk.

626
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 6: Let's talk about all the negative, the negative ramifications of that.

627
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 4: No, you don't want to. I don't think so.

628
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 1: Yes, I know what is what's in the milk, mucus You'm.

629
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,719
Speaker 6: Yes, disgusting. No, I'm gonna I'm gonna switch back to

630
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 6: coconut milk. And I don't want to hear about the

631
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,840
Speaker 6: poor monkeys and the coconuts anymore.

632
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:42,319
Speaker 2: The slave monkeys that are used.

633
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:44,799
Speaker 1: That's right, all right, when we come back, Janet Win,

634
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:47,279
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be happy with this. Orange County is

635
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,759
Speaker 1: an animal shelter called oc Animal Care. Janet Win is

636
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 1: a state senator from Orange County. She wrote a piece

637
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,279
Speaker 1: in the Orange County Register and this is this is

638
00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:01,959
Speaker 1: hard to believe she's She calls the OC Animal Care

639
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: Shelter a goolag, and she says the pets are being

640
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: secretly killed for no apparent reason, and those with catastrophic

641
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:17,560
Speaker 1: injuries are dying waiting for medical care, and the pens

642
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 1: are routinely coated in feces and urine. Large dogs are

643
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,839
Speaker 1: riddled with anxiety because they get so little exercise.

644
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 4: John, can we get out your bullhorn and go over there?

645
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, something's got to be done about this, So

646
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 1: she's going to lay out the case. When we returned

647
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:38,239
Speaker 1: John Cobalt Show, KFI AM six forty, Debora Mark is

648
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 1: live in the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey, you've

649
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,680
Speaker 1: been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can

650
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: always hear the show live on KFI AM six forty

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Speaker 1: from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and

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Speaker 1: of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app