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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Mayor Bass, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us. I do want to start

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Speaker 1: with gas prices, obviously hot topic across the country. When

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Speaker 1: I take a look at California, TRIPLEA tells me right

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Speaker 1: now that the average gas price is pushing about six

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Speaker 1: dollars per gallon. You think about Los Angeles, Obviously, it's

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Speaker 1: a city that loves its cars. So what are you doing,

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Speaker 1: as mayor, if anything, to try and help reduce the

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Speaker 1: impact of those higher gas prices.

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Speaker 2: Well, let me just tell you that we are a

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Speaker 2: city that loves our cars. However, we have spent the

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Speaker 2: last three or four decades building out our public transportation

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Speaker 2: system and so encouraging people to use public transit, encouraging

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Speaker 2: people to carpool. We certainly hope that this ends soon enough,

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Speaker 2: because gas prices were already high here because we have

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Speaker 2: chosen to text ourselves to improve our environment. So adding

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Speaker 2: on the international events and just the uncertainty from Washington,

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Speaker 2: you can only imagine the concern that has when affordability

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Speaker 2: is the number one issue we're dealing with here period.

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Speaker 3: Let me stick with affordability if I can. I know

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Speaker 3: that permits for new construction have fallen every year since

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Speaker 3: you took office back in twenty twenty two. Curious why

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Speaker 3: that is also curious what you can do as mayor

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Speaker 3: to reverse that trend in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, Number one is making it easier to build,

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Speaker 2: and so I did that within my first couple of

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Speaker 2: weeks in office. I signed an executive directive to fast

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Speaker 2: track the building, especially of housing, and we have forty

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Speaker 2: thousand units that are currently going through that process now,

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Speaker 2: with several thousand actively under construction. But once we applied

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Speaker 2: those lessons to affordable housing, then we began to apply

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Speaker 2: those lessons in terms of cutting red tape to other

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Speaker 2: types of building, whether it's commercial, show, residential, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: And so that has helped now. Of course, the other

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Speaker 2: thing that is creating a lot of difficulty is just

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Speaker 2: the larger macro economic issues.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you're seeing that across the country. I do

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Speaker 1: want to talk specifically though about Hollywood, about the filmmaking industry.

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Speaker 1: We learned earlier this year that we saw the consolidation

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Speaker 1: of Paramount and Warner Brothers, a hard fought bidding war

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Speaker 1: there on Paramount's part. The consensus is that this is

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Speaker 1: likely going to lead to thousands of job cuts. You

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Speaker 1: think about the unemployment rate in LA it already stands

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Speaker 1: at about five point one percent, that was at the

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Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty five. That is higher than US

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Speaker 1: and state averages. So with this wave of job cuts

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Speaker 1: seen as likely, what are you doing to prepare?

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Speaker 2: Well, let me just tell you even before that the

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Speaker 2: entertainment industry is one of our foundation industries, and so

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Speaker 2: I have certainly been doing everything to make make sure

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Speaker 2: that filming doesn't continue to leave and in fact increases

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Speaker 2: in our city. And so the first thing, of course,

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Speaker 2: was the advocacy on the tax credits on the state level,

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Speaker 2: which did finally pass and get signed. I was involved

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Speaker 2: when I was Speaker of the Assembly many years ago

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Speaker 2: in creating the first tax credits. But I meet with

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Speaker 2: the industry regularly and they came up with a variety

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Speaker 2: of things that the city could do to make filming easier.

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Speaker 2: I put all of those into policy, put them into action,

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Speaker 2: and we do have filming increasing in our city. Of course,

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Speaker 2: I'm concerned about the merger. I think what a lot

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Speaker 2: of people don't think about are all of the jobs

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Speaker 2: that are associated, either directly are indirectly with the industry

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Speaker 2: and making sure that filming can be easier. We have

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Speaker 2: over one hundred and nineteen new projects that have started

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Speaker 2: in LA since the tax credits and these other initiatives

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Speaker 2: have been put into place.

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Speaker 3: Preparing for two big sporting events. Let's start with the first,

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Speaker 3: that's the World Cup, And I'm curious if you could

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Speaker 3: describe the amount of investment you're having to make in

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Speaker 3: security and indeed who's going to be footing the bill

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Speaker 3: for all that.

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Speaker 2: Sure, well, we certainly are anticipating reimbursement from the federal government.

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Speaker 2: You know, we were got the consideration for a national

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Speaker 2: security event very early on, and so that unleashes a

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Speaker 2: lot of support. But what we're doing as a city

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Speaker 2: the game actually takes place in an adjacent city, Englewood,

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Speaker 2: but we are preparing for tens of thousands, if not more,

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Speaker 2: of visitors traveling throughout our city, and we're planning festivals

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Speaker 2: and watch parties all throughout our city. We anticipate having

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Speaker 2: one hundred different events, and you know, the World Cup

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Speaker 2: lasts over thirty days, so we're really seeing it as

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Speaker 2: an economic boom to our area.

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Speaker 1: It's a similar situation when you think about what's happening

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Speaker 1: in New York. Of course, the actual games are happening

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey, but of course New York City is

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Speaker 1: going to same things sort of see the benefit of that.

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Speaker 1: I do want to talk about the Olympics. Of course,

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Speaker 1: that is the other big sporting event. You have called

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Speaker 1: for the ouster of Casey Wasserman as the LA twenty

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Speaker 1: eight Olympic chair. You looked at his past ties to

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Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein. He's staying put. So with that in mind,

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Speaker 1: given that history, how do you anticipate working together now?

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Speaker 2: Well, we'll continue to work together. I'm in conversation regularly.

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Speaker 2: LA twenty eight is the independent nonprofit that is putting

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Speaker 2: on the games. It's located nearby City Hall. We collaborate

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Speaker 2: on a daily basis. I set up an Office of

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Speaker 2: Major Events to handle all of the events. The culmination,

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Speaker 2: of course, is the Olympics and the Paralympics. But we

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Speaker 2: have the World Cup, the US Open for Golf for women,

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Speaker 2: we have the Super Bowl. All of those things are

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Speaker 2: happening before we get to the Olympics, and so we

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Speaker 2: continue to work together. The decision whether Casey Wasserman stays

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Speaker 2: was up to the board. They've made their decision. My

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Speaker 2: role is to make sure that the city of Los

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Speaker 2: Angeles is ready to welcome thousands, tens of thousands of

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Speaker 2: visitors from around the world, and that all of the

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Speaker 2: venues that take place in the city of La are prepared.

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Speaker 3: I want to ask you for some comparison, if I

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Speaker 3: could so, Dan Lurie and San Francisco has kind of

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Speaker 3: shepherded that city from what was called a doom loop

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Speaker 3: into a bit of a boom environment, thanks in part

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Speaker 3: to AI. I'm curious how one mayor looks at another

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Speaker 3: and the work that he or she does. Is there

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Speaker 3: anything in his leadership that you admire or think might

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Speaker 3: be transferable to your leadership of Los Angeles in this term?

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Speaker 3: And if you're re elected to a second.

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Speaker 2: One, well, let me just tell you that one thing

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Speaker 2: that has been very enjoyable about being mayor is that

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Speaker 2: we are all in conversation and collaborate with each other

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Speaker 2: and look at each other's experience. So actually, my view

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Speaker 2: of San Francisco started with the former mayor, London Breed,

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Speaker 2: who really focused on AI. She said she wanted it

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Speaker 2: to be the AI capital of the world. And I

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Speaker 2: see how he has continued that, and I'm sure he

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Speaker 2: will expand it even further looking at his ties in

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Speaker 2: the business community. Now, you know, San Francisco is a much, much,

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Speaker 2: much smaller city than Los Angeles is. We are so big,

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Speaker 2: five hundred square miles that we don't have one big industry.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the entertainment industry, of course is our rock,

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Speaker 2: but so are several other industries as well well.

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Speaker 1: Mayor Bass. As David mentioned, you are up for reelection,

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Speaker 1: so focusing explicitly on that, how would you say that

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles is better off today than it was four

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Speaker 1: years ago? And should you win that second term, what

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Speaker 1: is your top goal?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely well, I ran because Los Angeles was the epicenter

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Speaker 2: for the country in homelessness, especially street homelessness, and I

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Speaker 2: am proud to say that after year after year year

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Speaker 2: of homelessness increasing, and the national trend, frankly was an

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Speaker 2: increase in homelessness of eighteen percent, we've had the exact

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Speaker 2: opposite in Los Angeles, where we've had a decrease in

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Speaker 2: street homelessness of eighteen percent. This is a disfunctional system

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Speaker 2: that has been dysfunctional for at least the last three decades,

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Speaker 2: and so what I hope to accomplish by the end

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Speaker 2: of my second term is establishing and creating a functional

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Speaker 2: system that we get people off the street. We know

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Speaker 2: how to do that, but we have to keep them

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Speaker 2: off the street permanently, and we have to prevent more

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Speaker 2: people from falling onto into homelessness. So public safety is

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Speaker 2: another key issue, and crime has been reduced to levels

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Speaker 2: going back to the nineteen sixties. And then basic city services.

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Speaker 2: So when you think of public safety, basic things like

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Speaker 2: street lights. We've had a rash, like many other cities

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Speaker 2: of copper theft, and so now pushing that furthers our

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Speaker 2: environmental goals of changing from copper to solar. And I

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Speaker 2: just announced the program a couple of days ago to

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Speaker 2: replace sixty thousand copper wire lights with solar lights. What

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Speaker 2: the city had been doing for years and years is

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Speaker 2: just replacing copper lights with copper lights that continued to

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Speaker 2: be stolen. So basic quality of life, basic city services, homelessness,

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Speaker 2: public safety, the things that I have worked on that

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Speaker 2: we have made absolute objective progress in. I want to

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Speaker 2: continue and take it across the finish line. All right.

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Speaker 3: The forty third mayor of the city of Los Angeles,

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Speaker 3: Karen Bass, thank you very much, appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on