Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing from iHeart Radio. My guest today is a politician, businessman,
Speaker 1: and the fortieth governor of California. Prior to his governorship,
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom served as the Lieutenant governor of California and
Speaker 1: as the forty second mayor of San Francisco. A native
Speaker 1: San Franciscan, Newsom began his political career as a volunteer
Speaker 1: for Willie Brown's mayoral campaign in nineteen ninety five. California
Speaker 1: may be the sixth largest economy in the world, but
Speaker 1: it faces some of our country's biggest problems. Most recently,
Speaker 1: Governor Newsom has been contending with the wildfires the devastated
Speaker 1: areas of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: This passed to January.
Speaker 1: Wildfires are cyclical and a natural part of the topography
Speaker 1: of the area. However, this year's fires were particularly destructive.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was just reading a Joan Didion piece.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about one hundred mile an hour winds, and
Speaker 3: our birds were literally combusting in the sky, and horses
Speaker 3: are on fire and being shot, and embers went miles
Speaker 3: across the pch and one hundred and ninety seven homes
Speaker 3: were burned. So the answer is, yes, this has happened,
Speaker 3: and it will continue to happen. And so we'reas dumb
Speaker 3: as we want to be if we rebuild without a
Speaker 3: different mindset around science, climate resiliency, and redundancy as relates
Speaker 3: to emergency management.
Speaker 1: Is it safe to say, because obviously these areas where
Speaker 1: this happened, and this is I'm assuming, in one sense
Speaker 1: a complicating factor and in another sense not really, which
Speaker 1: is you just can't go back and build the paliseds
Speaker 1: the way it was.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the tension. People want to move back,
Speaker 3: They want to move back quickly. Now they want to
Speaker 3: move back quickly but safely. So it comes to the
Speaker 3: issues of debris removal, soil sampling testing, and now they
Speaker 3: want to come back safely. But also recognizing that we
Speaker 3: want to have a different kind of level of confidence
Speaker 3: that the building materials that we're going to use when
Speaker 3: we build are not going to be compustible, that we
Speaker 3: got redundancy systems as it relates to water, as it
Speaker 3: relates to hydrants, that we have more evacuation routes, better
Speaker 3: emergency warnings and the like. And so it's that constant
Speaker 3: tension that we're going to have to figure out in
Speaker 3: real time and in real time, including quite literally today
Speaker 3: down here in La We got through record breaking first
Speaker 3: phase to be removal of hazardous waste within three weeks,
Speaker 3: and we're trying to move heaven and earth literally and
Speaker 3: figuratively to get all the rest of the debris done
Speaker 3: in nine months to a year. At the same time
Speaker 3: concurrently providing building permits which people are getting today, and
Speaker 3: you're going to see homes starting to be rebuilt over
Speaker 3: the course of the next few months. So this is
Speaker 3: all happening as sort of a rolling process that we
Speaker 3: hope will give people some confidence and their ability to
Speaker 3: come back home, but to come back home in.
Speaker 2: A much better place.
Speaker 1: We have a writer coming on to do the show
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks who wrote a piece that
Speaker 1: I was completely fascinated by, quote when plastic cities burn.
Speaker 1: Her name was Zobe Schlanger, and I always remember during
Speaker 1: nine to eleven that when thirteen million square feet of
Speaker 1: real estate came down and formed a toxic booja baise
Speaker 1: on that site, and then it rained the next day
Speaker 1: and a lot of that got washed into the harbor. Yep,
Speaker 1: and so the problem appear. I'm wondering is is that
Speaker 1: a big urgent thing is to get that Malibu crap
Speaker 1: out of.
Speaker 2: There as soon as possible going to the ocean.
Speaker 3: No, And it's interesting we work concurrently. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is typical California. We had a three year drought that
Speaker 3: was the most significant since statehood that was ended with
Speaker 3: a three weeks of flooding, the most significant since statehood.
Speaker 3: So drought and floods concurrently, and so that was our
Speaker 3: mindset after this fire. Once we put out the fires,
Speaker 3: we started to get these atmospheric rivers and hadn't seen
Speaker 3: any rain in nine months up to this fire. Remember
Speaker 3: this fire occurred in January. It was as dry as
Speaker 3: it's ever been in modern history. And then of course
Speaker 3: we had those floods. So we were working with our
Speaker 3: debris crews and immediately moving them to do water management
Speaker 3: and to begin to set up barriers, to do what
Speaker 3: we could to protect as much infrastructure as well as
Speaker 3: the ocean and other watersheds.
Speaker 2: We did a decent job, in that you can always
Speaker 2: do better.
Speaker 3: We didn't have a lot of time, but we're deeply
Speaker 3: mindful to get this stuff out as quickly as possible
Speaker 3: because of that concern. But again, in that process, you know,
Speaker 3: you got to work through the propane tanks, you got
Speaker 3: to work through the EV batteries, and you know we
Speaker 3: talk about lexrication. That's a big part of this. And
Speaker 3: then no one saw that coming. I made that point
Speaker 3: to Trump when I was in the Oval office. I said,
Speaker 3: you know, Elon may have some insight on this. So
Speaker 3: it's you know, it's this is all challenged, but it's
Speaker 3: also familiar.
Speaker 2: And I want to make that point. This is the
Speaker 2: tragedy of all this.
Speaker 3: You know, the folks that are working on this debris
Speaker 3: removal just finished up, are still marginally working in Maui.
Speaker 3: In terms of the wildfire's there. The folks that I'm
Speaker 3: working with, the folks I worked with directly at Coffee
Speaker 3: Park in northern California. We lost fifty six hundred homes
Speaker 3: to wildfire in Paradise, California, the most deadly wildfire California history.
Speaker 3: Eighty five people lost their lives there. The same folks
Speaker 3: working on this are folks that work there. So in
Speaker 3: a rather perverse way, there's a hell of a lot
Speaker 3: of experience in this space in terms of prevention suppression
Speaker 3: response in terms of the immediate and then obviously long
Speaker 3: term commitment to being here, getting the job done, and
Speaker 3: not turning our back on this community when the cameras
Speaker 3: are gone.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned Paradise. We had on the show Lucy Walker,
Speaker 1: who made the film Bring your Own Brigade. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: which is this wonderful doc about Wolsey.
Speaker 3: And she just sent it to me and I've got
Speaker 3: to open it up. I love, she says, I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: the answers to all your questions are right here.
Speaker 1: She's there in Paradise. And there's a scene in the
Speaker 1: movie when they have the consultant come in about what
Speaker 1: to do to remediate and the guy gives them five
Speaker 1: basic things the distance of the plant life and the
Speaker 1: vegetation from the house. That no, don't let it touch
Speaker 1: the roof, but all these are no wood roofs anymore,
Speaker 1: no wood sigles. It gives them a very basic set.
Speaker 1: They bring him in, they hire him, he makes his recommendations,
Speaker 1: and they reject all of them. Yeah, they want to
Speaker 1: go right back and have everything the way it was,
Speaker 1: And that's must be one of the toughest things for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, And this is it.
Speaker 3: I mean people, you know, I remember in Paradise people said, well,
Speaker 3: you can't let them rebuild their I said, well, these
Speaker 3: people have been around since California was founded. I mean,
Speaker 3: there's some of the original post office boxes in San
Speaker 3: Francisco were here before there was millions and millions of California.
Speaker 3: And so that's the tension because now obviously different level
Speaker 3: of sophistication around what we referred to as the Wuies,
Speaker 3: this wild lamb urban interface, and obviously so much in
Speaker 3: the new construction that's not since we've got so much nimbism.
Speaker 3: Every major state does, but particularly here on the coast,
Speaker 3: people don't want density, so they tend to do sprawl,
Speaker 3: and that sprawl gets further and further into this forested areas,
Speaker 3: creating more challenging conditions in the best of times. But
Speaker 3: when you combine that now with the hot's getting a
Speaker 3: lot hotter, the dry is getting drier as it relates
Speaker 3: to climate change and the more extremes and the weather,
Speaker 3: obviously that's combustible in every way, shape or form, and so.
Speaker 2: That's the tension.
Speaker 3: Insurance in many ways is taking care of that, even
Speaker 3: it's a head of policy, because people are just not
Speaker 3: ensuring insurance companies. Capitalism is raining. They're pulling out of
Speaker 3: the market. Now you can't get your mortgage, Now you
Speaker 3: can't get your home. And so that's the tension that's
Speaker 3: happened all across the Western United States and in the South,
Speaker 3: these hurricanes the same thing Florida, Florida, I mean, Georgia,
Speaker 3: and North Carolina, Louisiana. And so none of this is
Speaker 3: necessarily unique to California. We just like everything in California,
Speaker 3: the future happens here first, the good and the bad.
Speaker 2: And we're in the tip of.
Speaker 3: The sphere, not just to the challenges as it relates
Speaker 3: to Mother Nature, but also in terms of our response
Speaker 3: and trying to address a lot of the underlying causes
Speaker 3: as it relates to the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions.
Speaker 3: And I'm proud of that leadership. But look, this is
Speaker 3: the tension working with the insurance companies who are allowing
Speaker 3: now climate modeling in terms of their rate approvals, which
Speaker 3: we never did in the past, which is stabilizing that market.
Speaker 3: Of course, it's been radically impacted by these recent fires.
Speaker 3: We are working with land use experts and we actually
Speaker 3: have more aggressive proposals that I just put out quite
Speaker 3: literally a few weeks ago in response to these fires,
Speaker 3: as it relates not just to defensible spaces, but home
Speaker 3: hardening and other strategies around materials. And we're going to
Speaker 3: be much more restrictive in terms of those that want
Speaker 3: to come back and build in a nineteen thirty style.
Speaker 3: We simply cannot afford that structure of structure impacts. You're
Speaker 3: impacting the entire community, not just putting your own home
Speaker 3: at risk.
Speaker 1: There's an opportunity here to see the future. That as
Speaker 1: an opportunity for the people, not just you, because you're
Speaker 1: obviously way ahead of the kirk because of your job.
Speaker 1: But there's an opportunity here for people to face the
Speaker 1: future and design a place. It's gone. It's not some
Speaker 1: burn this and that and we have a patch work.
Speaker 1: It's all gone. It's a blank slate. What do you
Speaker 1: do when the blank slate with what the current information
Speaker 1: is and have the modern community?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: And one thing is with you know, you start with
Speaker 3: a framework of humility and grace. That is, it's not
Speaker 3: top down, meaning it's not to dictate from Sacramento or Washington, DC.
Speaker 3: It's got to be a community led effort, particularly not
Speaker 3: just in the Palisades. Remember the Palisades represents you know,
Speaker 3: you know it's a diverse community, but certainly the demographics
Speaker 3: are so different than Alta Dina, which was even more impacted,
Speaker 3: which is profoundly diverse community. And the issues that you
Speaker 3: brought up around speculation and price gouging, people coming in
Speaker 3: with unsolicit offers to buy out people's property for pennies
Speaker 3: on the dollar.
Speaker 2: They were targeting.
Speaker 3: Different portions of the around community like Maui, and so
Speaker 3: we were aggressive on some early executive orders, and our
Speaker 3: Attorney General's been aggressive calling that out addressing some of
Speaker 3: those issues. But what I just launched was a new platform. Look,
Speaker 3: we want a community engage process, but we don't want
Speaker 3: the community to be intimidated by the mob, meaning by
Speaker 3: organized interests that have a disproportionate impact on the outcome
Speaker 3: of a community design effort. So we created a new
Speaker 3: platform called Engaged California. It's actual platform that allows people
Speaker 3: to be heard, has a two way framework of conversation
Speaker 3: between the state, city partners, federal partners, and the community
Speaker 3: where they can design that future and feel heard and
Speaker 3: represented in the process. A deliberative process to try to
Speaker 3: find consensus to answer your question. Bringing in the best minds,
Speaker 3: the best scientists from around the world.
Speaker 2: We already I can't tell you great opportunity for those minds.
Speaker 3: You know, we had Bill and Hillary Clinton reached out.
Speaker 3: They said at the Clinton Foundation, We've got some of
Speaker 3: these world class architects from Japan and they're sending cell
Speaker 3: phone numbers. We're getting all these people, and we're populating
Speaker 3: all these folks the best materials, the best designs, prefab
Speaker 3: all kinds of new strategies on fire suppression, et cetera.
Speaker 3: And so we're trying to bring all that bear to
Speaker 3: your point to sort of this is our extraordinary opportunity
Speaker 3: with all the ingenuity and creativity and entrepreneurials, resources literal
Speaker 3: and resources more broadly defined a resourceful mindset. We have
Speaker 3: to take advantage all that. And again we cannot build
Speaker 3: it back the exact way that it was.
Speaker 2: Less like a movie set. It's a movie. It was
Speaker 2: a movie set it was anyway.
Speaker 1: So one more question about that subject, which is I,
Speaker 1: you know, beyond people speculating about Trump and strings attached
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff, what I'm wondering is are
Speaker 1: you confident as the governor of such a huge state,
Speaker 1: was such a wealthy state, and yet they need help.
Speaker 1: Are you confident the federal Governm's gonna step up and
Speaker 1: help county.
Speaker 3: As we you know, roll back the tape in six months,
Speaker 3: we'll see at this moment, you know, we had a
Speaker 3: very good conversation, you know, at the tarmac with the president,
Speaker 3: phone call, follow up conversations in the oval.
Speaker 2: You're hopeful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look at the end of and I've been through this.
Speaker 3: I remember Paradise, California. I wasn't even governor during Paradise,
Speaker 3: but I was lieutenant governor, and I remember tweeting out saying,
Speaker 3: you know, the former governor was the worst governor American history.
Speaker 3: Needs to rake the forests and basically blaming the governor
Speaker 3: for the fire right there, Brown And said, I'm withholding money,
Speaker 3: and that money eventually came, and so you know, and
Speaker 3: he's done in Puerto Rico. He's done it to other states,
Speaker 3: including some red states, and so look, I get the
Speaker 3: nature of leverage. He's the master of leverage. He's going
Speaker 3: to take advantage of those points of leverage. Any vulnerabilities
Speaker 3: in some ways, I don't begrudge that. I get it.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm mature, been around and so you know,
Speaker 3: we have to work with him, and so far I've
Speaker 3: got to say no, bs, it's actual truth. We went
Speaker 3: from about seven eight hundred people doing first phase to
Speaker 3: pre removal. After we sat down with him, we had
Speaker 3: about fifteen hundred. So he stepped out in matters. And
Speaker 3: so if it's attached to him, and success is attached,
Speaker 3: and I would love all the success to flow his direction,
Speaker 3: I think we can produce some pretty smarm result we concerned,
Speaker 3: of course, and that's by the way his approach I
Speaker 3: had during COVID, there was a democratic governor the United
Speaker 3: States America period, full stop, absolute objectivity. I don't say
Speaker 3: this from a subjective perch. No democratic governor worked better
Speaker 3: with Trump during COVID than I did. Despite the fact
Speaker 3: we're involved in one hundred and twenty two lawsuits where he.
Speaker 2: Was calling me a clown. I called him penny wise
Speaker 2: for caging kids that we're on the border issues.
Speaker 1: I remember some of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 1: times every now and then.
Speaker 3: So you know, we were able to figure that out,
Speaker 3: and I think we're you know, it's a familiar space
Speaker 3: for us again.
Speaker 2: We'll see how long it lasts though.
Speaker 1: California Governor Gavin Newsom. If you enjoy conversations about Golden
Speaker 1: State politics, check out my episode with former California Congresswoman
Speaker 1: Katie Porter.
Speaker 4: You know, I think there is an attitude that you know,
Speaker 4: sort of people are entitled to have Republican representation. Here.
Speaker 4: What they're entitled to is good representation, right, people who
Speaker 4: listen to them, people who fight for them, people who
Speaker 4: are not corrupt, and that can come in your Democratic
Speaker 4: or Republican forms.
Speaker 1: To hear more of my conversation with Katie Porter, go
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Gavin
Speaker 1: Newsom reveals why he never reads speeches and the challenges
Speaker 1: he faced as a child growing up with dyslexia. I'm
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin, and this is Here's the Thing. I had
Speaker 1: the privilege of speaking with Governor Gavin Newsom recently in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Newsom was raised by a hard working single
Speaker 1: mother who often worked up to three jobs to support him,
Speaker 1: his sister, and their foster children's siblings. Newsom would eventually
Speaker 1: help support the family himself, working several part time jobs.
Speaker 1: While in high school. I was curious if Governor Newsom
Speaker 1: viewed himself as a caretaker as a young man and
Speaker 1: in his political career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I mean my mom, single mom, teenager,
Speaker 3: came from no wealth, nothing passed away fifteen eighteen years
Speaker 3: ago with nothing, just worked her tail off. Don't complain,
Speaker 3: don't explain. You just get up, do your work. And
Speaker 3: yet nothing was given to you. You had the paper roots,
Speaker 3: you did the construction, you did the janitorial, you went
Speaker 3: out there, you were an entrepreneur to pay for a
Speaker 3: basketball hoop, just made it happen. And that grit, that
Speaker 3: hard work, what a gift. That was the gift of divorce.
Speaker 3: And an idealistic dad that wasn't a dad until I
Speaker 3: was older.
Speaker 2: He was around.
Speaker 3: He was around and he passed years ago, but he
Speaker 3: was around when I was older, and it was amazing mentor.
Speaker 3: But he was passionate about the environment, he was passionate
Speaker 3: about social justice, racial justice for Getty, and he worked. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was a judge and he was kind of he
Speaker 3: was like he was one of those activist judges and
Speaker 3: worked a little bit with a Getty family. And that attachment,
Speaker 3: of course, is a big part of the narrative of
Speaker 3: me that somehow my name is Gavin Getty, not Gavin Newsom.
Speaker 3: So people just assumed there was a trust fund, wealth privilege.
Speaker 3: But my childhood bears testament to something.
Speaker 2: Repizza and asked you to pay for it because there,
Speaker 2: thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, by the way, if there's a trust fund in
Speaker 3: my future, let me know, I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3: But it was yeah, no, so it was shaped by that,
Speaker 3: and you never you know, Look, the biggest problem with
Speaker 3: me was not having a single mom. Was the problem
Speaker 3: for her of having two kids and one that couldn't
Speaker 3: read or write. I don't read speeches. I can't audio
Speaker 3: as you're preferred.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well no it's not preferred.
Speaker 3: I have such severe learning disability dyslexia that I you know,
Speaker 3: so I'm st childhood, since childhood, so you've never seen
Speaker 3: me read a speech in my life. And that's a
Speaker 3: hell of a profession to pay.
Speaker 1: So you're a skilled actor that you were, like the
Speaker 1: Olivia of California politics.
Speaker 3: My point is I have so much empathy for her
Speaker 3: that I never was able to express because she passed
Speaker 3: so many years ago. But what a you know, what
Speaker 3: a gift in hindsight, all this, you know all that,
Speaker 3: you know all you can claim your victim whatever. It's
Speaker 3: shaped who I am, and it's shaped to work ethic
Speaker 3: and that's I'll tell you anything else. There's nothing that
Speaker 3: I value more than just the deep appreciation of taking
Speaker 3: You have agency. You can shape the future. It's not
Speaker 3: conditions that determine your faith in future. It's decisions. And
Speaker 3: so I've never had a victim mindset. I've always just
Speaker 3: felt just grit, hard work, and humility at the same time.
Speaker 1: Now you start in San Francisco your political career. The
Speaker 1: reason I say your you're the caretaker thing is because
Speaker 1: obviously everybody talks about you're this handsome guy. You could
Speaker 1: have driven down the road and gone to LA and
Speaker 1: had a movie career, probably in fifteen minutes. But instead
Speaker 1: we find you land at the Parking and Parking and
Speaker 1: Traffic Commission. Yeah, well, yeah, I did constituent services one
Speaker 1: year for Tom Hayden.
Speaker 2: Do you did?
Speaker 1: Hayden walked into his off He goes, what are you
Speaker 1: doing here? I was on a TV show. He goes,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? I go, I'm doing constituent services.
Speaker 1: These people can't pay their power bill. He goes, come
Speaker 1: into my office because I went and volunteered for him,
Speaker 1: and they put me in that I did these I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm like you in that sense that I just I
Speaker 1: wanted to work there. You go and get involved in
Speaker 1: the process. But when you get involved why at the polyside.
Speaker 3: Degree, Well, I was a small business guy, started right
Speaker 3: out of college, putt of small businesses, Yeah, a bunch,
Speaker 3: and put pen to paper, got thirteen investors, raised seventy
Speaker 3: five hundred bucks each and opened this little the dime
Speaker 3: still with us today, a wine store. And it was
Speaker 3: inspiration desperation. I thought this one.
Speaker 2: Would crush it and it was a disaster.
Speaker 3: Two three years, just struggle and you know, couldn't afford
Speaker 3: Literally when I say no employees, I had a part
Speaker 3: time employee back Kelly. She came in at five every
Speaker 3: night because I couldn't affor anyone else. When I did deliveries,
Speaker 3: I literally went to my apartment to go to the
Speaker 3: warehouse to pick up the case of wine. I had
Speaker 3: to lock the door back in twenty minutes and then
Speaker 3: drove myself. You made the wine and didn't make it.
Speaker 3: Nobody was a wine store. So wine shop, Yeah, wine shop.
Speaker 3: And I say that not to impress it impress upon
Speaker 3: you sort of. You know that was you know, he
Speaker 3: was inspired to open a small business.
Speaker 2: Entrepreneurial mind.
Speaker 3: Say you have dyslexia, by definition, you a little more
Speaker 3: entrepreneur because you're used to making mistakes. You try to earierating,
Speaker 3: you're trying new things. You're willing to take risks because
Speaker 3: you don't know any other way. You're not wrote, you're
Speaker 3: not linear, and you're thinking, so open this business. And
Speaker 3: year three had started to work, and then someone said
Speaker 3: to you, we should do something more. And I said,
Speaker 3: I took those same investors. They doubled down fifteen thousand each.
Speaker 3: Open a restaurant, got lucky with a chef, Arnold Rossman,
Speaker 3: who knew he was a great chef, three and a
Speaker 3: half out of four stars. There's lines people are saying, Europe,
Speaker 3: you're a great restaurant.
Speaker 2: Try.
Speaker 3: I said, I don't know what the hell I'm doing
Speaker 3: twenty five years old. Meanwhile, Willie Brown, is the mayor
Speaker 3: of San Francisco, calls me, says, I appreciate he did
Speaker 3: a fundraiser for me. I know my state status.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 3: I think that's because I did a few fundraisers at
Speaker 3: the wine store young people thinks and he goes, hey,
Speaker 3: you want to be on the film commission. I said,
Speaker 3: that's fantastic, and so I go down to city Hall.
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is great, twenty something years old film commission.
Speaker 2: This is amazing.
Speaker 3: And go down and he's swearing a bunch of people
Speaker 3: in the same day and he says, Gavin Newsom the
Speaker 3: new chair of the Parking and Traffic Commission.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what the hell?
Speaker 3: At first, I didn't even chair met and I swear
Speaker 3: to God, I'll never for get crown fo get better than.
Speaker 2: That, get you a better of that.
Speaker 3: I was like, film film, I'm into. I go and
Speaker 3: they said, what's your vision on parking and traffic? There
Speaker 3: was like a camera. I said, I literally, I still
Speaker 3: have it. It's on a VHS step. I still have it.
Speaker 3: Someone's stressed tested this and I was actually able.
Speaker 2: To find it, and I said, well, I stumbled along.
Speaker 3: I said, I pay my parking tickets, so here I am,
Speaker 3: damn President of the Parking and Traffic Commission. And it
Speaker 3: turns out it actually was an important job because there
Speaker 3: was a freeway that we had to down wild controversy
Speaker 3: west side of town. East side of town, and somehow
Speaker 3: I'm in the middle of it and I didn't completely
Speaker 3: blow it. And as a consequence of that, nine months later,
Speaker 3: Willie Brown has a vacancy on the San Francisco County
Speaker 3: Board of Supervisors, and he was out there struggling to
Speaker 3: find someone. And in Willie Brown's unique way legend in
Speaker 3: California politics, he says, I found the perfect affirmative action candidate.
Speaker 3: He referred to me as his affirmative of the only
Speaker 3: straight white male that he said would take the jobs
Speaker 3: he needs one.
Speaker 2: He needs one.
Speaker 3: So I was the I was, at least, based on
Speaker 3: his assessment, an affirmative at which you know was some
Speaker 3: beared some truth to that. And so he pointed me
Speaker 3: to the board supervisor. That's how my political life started.
Speaker 2: Now, did you work close, fairly closely with him and
Speaker 2: over those usually were?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I drove him crazy because I was still
Speaker 3: that entrepreneur. I was still the small business and I
Speaker 3: know I didn't understand politics. I understand what being appointed
Speaker 3: meant means something a little different than being elected.
Speaker 2: Doesn't your wards what?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: I challenged him a lot, I said, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: and I was the business guy. So I would come.
Speaker 3: You know, I was the little snotty kid. You know, well,
Speaker 3: I take a business like approach to looking at these things.
Speaker 3: I need to see the business. And there's exactly whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was the champion. I was the conservative in
Speaker 3: San Francisco politics. And and he turns out and and
Speaker 3: I guess you know, I was like six people ten
Speaker 3: people in the race, and I was thirty four years old,
Speaker 3: and you know, I didn't think i'd have a chance
Speaker 3: in hell and gotten a runoff and boom, I'm I'm
Speaker 3: going to learn from him.
Speaker 2: He's a master. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Everybody ascribes a real heavy political, you know skill to him.
Speaker 3: I remember someone describing, I don't know if it was
Speaker 3: described accurately, but of the grateful dead of Jerry Garcia.
Speaker 3: Someone describing Jerry saying, you don't want to be the
Speaker 3: best of the best. You want to be the only
Speaker 3: one that does what you do. You don't want to
Speaker 3: be the best the best. The only one that doesn't
Speaker 3: do that's Willie Brown. He redefined as far they had
Speaker 3: to remember termline it's in California, literally were established because
Speaker 3: they couldn't get rid of them. And he kept becoming
Speaker 3: speaker even when it was the FDR offer, but they
Speaker 3: had Republicans in the majority, and they made a Democratic
Speaker 3: speaker because he was a deal maker. It's a different era.
Speaker 3: Worked with Reagan, he had great bipartisan bona FIDE's, but
Speaker 3: he stood on principle, still stands on principle today. He's
Speaker 3: alive and he's a fierce critic still to these days,
Speaker 3: and the fiercest and most loyal person. And the reason
Speaker 3: I'm here, the reason we're having this conversation is Willie
Speaker 3: Brownt here.
Speaker 1: When you're on the Board of Supervisors and then you
Speaker 1: become the mayor of San Francisco. Everyone that I know,
Speaker 1: because I love San Francisco and I've always enjoyed going there.
Speaker 1: I haven't spent volumes of time there, but I always
Speaker 1: went there with friends and had the best time and
Speaker 1: love it there. But it seems to have you know,
Speaker 1: the same metronomic kind of problems there about your housing
Speaker 1: now because of the tech boom and homelessness and drugs
Speaker 1: and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: What shape is it in now? What you say is
Speaker 2: it is still struggling. No, it's coming back, perhaps, I
Speaker 2: mean by any of people.
Speaker 3: I just you know, I think it went through a
Speaker 3: very difficult period around COVID, and there was sort of
Speaker 3: a you know, people step back. The tents started to
Speaker 3: a mass on the streets. We see that across country,
Speaker 3: notably in California, more encampments, more tents, and it was
Speaker 3: by the way it was directed by the FED saying,
Speaker 3: you want to cohort people. We don't want to clean
Speaker 3: up the tents and the encampments. During COVID there was
Speaker 3: concerns around that, and so after that there was a
Speaker 3: mindset of almost additional permissiveness, and that became very dominant,
Speaker 3: particularly in San Francisco, where it no longer was concentrated
Speaker 3: in this forty to fifty square block area, in this
Speaker 3: sort of tenderloin where it's been for thirty forty years,
Speaker 3: started to become more prevalent, even into some of the neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: But that's now coming back. The crime rates are down
Speaker 3: near fifty year lows. You're seeing people starting to move
Speaker 3: back in the neighborhoods are vibrant as much more than ever.
Speaker 3: Downtown is still struggling, but look, it's a city that
Speaker 3: shaped me, my.
Speaker 2: Great great great grandfather.
Speaker 3: There was a cop and you know, and my dad
Speaker 3: used to say, says he didn't know what came first,
Speaker 3: the Irish cop or San Francisco, And so I think
Speaker 3: it took one hundred and fifty years for the cop
Speaker 3: to become a politician.
Speaker 2: And here I am.
Speaker 3: But it's one of the most magical, curious and mystical places.
Speaker 3: And one thing it continues to be is a state
Speaker 3: of just constant renewal.
Speaker 1: But in that svide between northern and southern California which
Speaker 1: I observed for the many years I was here, a
Speaker 1: more liberal and progressive quadrant here and a more conservative
Speaker 1: quadrant here, in spite of la being part of that.
Speaker 1: When I was in California in the early days, I
Speaker 1: was here. I came here in eighty three, so it
Speaker 1: was the end of the first term of Reagan. He's
Speaker 1: heading into his re election. I think Duke Magen was
Speaker 1: the governor. The Olympics are coming, so they just scooped
Speaker 1: everybody up and put them in busses and took them
Speaker 1: to Barstow.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: They were like, clean it up for the Olympics, we
Speaker 1: don't want the world to see it. And they took
Speaker 1: all the wh I lived in Venice then, and they
Speaker 1: just scooped them all up and put them on the
Speaker 1: bus and shipped him out of town.
Speaker 2: Let's be cana.
Speaker 3: That still happens all across this country and as an
Speaker 3: ongoing issue, and that's the tension. Look, I mean out
Speaker 3: of side, not out of mind for advocates, and it's understandable.
Speaker 3: But right now I think people are on edge all
Speaker 3: across this country. People are edge in this state. They've
Speaker 3: had it. They don't want to see the encampents anymore.
Speaker 3: They're done, They're done with the tents. I'm done with
Speaker 3: the tents. I'm done with the encampments. So we've been
Speaker 3: very aggressive. We've been very more forceful as a state.
Speaker 3: You know, when I was mayor, back to the days
Speaker 3: of the mayor, the state of California was nowhere to
Speaker 3: be found in homeless policy. There was no homeless plan.
Speaker 3: It was the counties and the city's responsibility. Schwarzenegger was
Speaker 3: governor at the time. I never thought of calling. And
Speaker 3: by the way, we have the highest number of people
Speaker 3: on the streets and sidewalks back then, it's not a
Speaker 3: new phenomena.
Speaker 2: This twenty years ago.
Speaker 3: It was one hundred and eighty eight thousand people out
Speaker 3: on the streets and sidewalks in our point of time
Speaker 3: count and it was the dominant issue for me as mayor,
Speaker 3: and it was my responsibility, my accountability, had no finger pointing,
Speaker 3: and we made real progress for six or seven years,
Speaker 3: legit real progress, and we started to see that unwind
Speaker 3: in the last decade or so.
Speaker 2: Back to again, I think COVID accelerating a lot of that.
Speaker 3: Fentanyl issues are street behavior, issues around drug use, mental health,
Speaker 3: and again a permissive structure that we have to address
Speaker 3: and we are addressing in this state. It just it's
Speaker 3: you know, it can't turn it around immediately, but directionally
Speaker 3: we're much more aggressive taking responsibility. It's not a laisse
Speaker 3: fair attitude. We're again not victims of this. And you know,
Speaker 3: I'm a little more heart at it, a little more pragmatic.
Speaker 3: Advocates don't always see eyed eye with me, but it's
Speaker 3: time that we are held to higher level accountablity, particularly democrats.
Speaker 3: We've got to prove we can govern, proven, get out
Speaker 3: of our own damn way and permits, get housing done,
Speaker 3: get things moving again like we I mean, the world
Speaker 3: we invent. It's working against us. Process and SEQUA and
Speaker 3: all the bullshit excuse my language, and the lawsuits and
Speaker 3: the litigation, and I think it's one of the reasons
Speaker 3: Trump's back in the White House. So it's a big
Speaker 3: wake up call and all of us own that, I think,
Speaker 3: And I'll.
Speaker 2: Forget the long winningness.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: One of the gifts of the Olympics coming in in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty eight is it forces a regionalization, forces a
Speaker 3: national and state focus on getting big things is done.
Speaker 3: And with these fires now a sense of urgency to
Speaker 3: do both. And and so I got to tell you
Speaker 3: I would never I mean, I'm the biggest prob There's
Speaker 3: nothing to do with me is governor. I'm the future
Speaker 3: ex governor of California. I am so long la as
Speaker 3: a region, So long California as the state's a fifth
Speaker 3: large's economy in the world. We dominate in more scientists, engineers,
Speaker 3: more rechers of normal laureates, the finances of higher education
Speaker 3: in the world, more patents, more venture capital. Thirty two
Speaker 3: of the fifty top AI companies in the world all
Speaker 3: in California. Most diverse state, a dynamism twenty seven percent
Speaker 3: of state four and born a gateway status geographic beauty
Speaker 3: unlike any other state, and now, if we can have
Speaker 3: a mind that's more aggressive in terms of just addressing
Speaker 3: the mistakes in our permissiveness of the past through democratic governance,
Speaker 3: I think this state is going to come out, particularly
Speaker 3: with all the challenges in Washington, to see in a
Speaker 3: really dominant position.
Speaker 1: Governor Gavin Newsom. If you're enjoying this conversation, tell a
Speaker 1: friend and be sure to follow Here's the thing on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: When we come back, Gavin Newsom details his plan to
Speaker 1: increase tax breaks for film production in California in the
Speaker 1: hopes of reviving one of the state's most famous industries.
Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin, and this is Here's the thing. Gavin
Speaker 1: Newsom has served as the fortieth governor of California since
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. His tenure has included tumultuous events such as
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen pandemic and two separate wildfire disasters. Despite
Speaker 1: the various difficulties of the past six years, I wondered
Speaker 1: what Newsom would consider some of the joys of holding
Speaker 1: the office.
Speaker 3: You know, it's been a disaster prone six years. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, I talked about Paradise. I was lieutenant governor,
Speaker 3: but I was also governor elect when I was standing
Speaker 3: there in the ashes of Paradise with Donald Trump and
Speaker 3: took over, and we had the largest utility in the
Speaker 3: United States of America PGN that filed bankruptcy within the
Speaker 3: first few weeks I was in office. We were trying
Speaker 3: to face the realities of unprecedented drought that I was
Speaker 3: referring to a moment ago, all of these wildfires, historic wildfires,
Speaker 3: and of course we walked right into COVID and California
Speaker 3: was in the you know, leaning and cutting edge of
Speaker 3: good policy. Those that judged very bad policy depends on
Speaker 3: your perspective policy tough policy, and you know, but for
Speaker 3: a state that's larger than twenty one state populations combined,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, it's not a small, isolated state.
Speaker 2: Different game here, different game.
Speaker 3: And I also realized in that case, you know, it
Speaker 3: was also a different game in mindset. The public looked
Speaker 3: to me not as Governor California, but I really felt
Speaker 3: like they looked at me as Mayor of California. And
Speaker 3: you had to be accountable for now everything in nuanced
Speaker 3: and detail, accountable for what was happening in every city,
Speaker 3: accountable for every crime that was occurring. Everything not the
Speaker 3: traditional role of a governor or dramatically different role. And
Speaker 3: I think that mindset continues to this day. And I
Speaker 3: think in many ways the office of governors changed since
Speaker 3: COVID in terms of that expectation, and that's more challenging
Speaker 3: perhaps here because of the diversity of the state, because
Speaker 3: of the scale and scope of this state. It's not
Speaker 3: an excuse, it's just it's been part of an interesting
Speaker 3: journey of recognition of understanding for me in terms of
Speaker 3: trying to understand what people expect of their governor that
Speaker 3: I never expected of my governor before I got here.
Speaker 3: Every day I wake up just to be able to
Speaker 3: not scream and yell at the TV set and we
Speaker 3: actually do something about it. To be on the forefront,
Speaker 3: unprecedented forefront of climate change and addressing that issue head on,
Speaker 3: and leading this nation in term policy, climate pangs policy
Speaker 3: and low carbon green growth, changing the way we produce
Speaker 3: a consumer energy. The work we've done on mental health
Speaker 3: at scale no one else's done. I mean, someone said,
Speaker 3: you know, you really need baby bonds. We put two
Speaker 3: billion dollars up every child three point four million kids
Speaker 3: gets a college savings account or a career account up
Speaker 3: to fifteen hundred dollars that enters into kindergarten. We create
Speaker 3: a brand new grade pre K for all. Swartzenegar City
Speaker 3: wanted after school for all. Put one hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: million dollars in. We put five billion dollars and made
Speaker 3: it happen after school and summer school for all community schools,
Speaker 3: reimagining the school day, extending them to nine hours a day.
Speaker 3: The ability to do what we've done on policy making,
Speaker 3: on homelessness again, I know that's not been felt, but
Speaker 3: this new care court, new paradigm to address the issue
Speaker 3: of mental and behavioral health, the issues we've done in
Speaker 3: terms of reforming our medical system through this thing called CALAIM,
Speaker 3: which is nation leading effort I can go through. Honestly, Listen,
Speaker 3: universal health care only stay in America, regardless of preexisting conditions,
Speaker 3: ability to pay, or immigration status controversial. California has done it.
Speaker 3: We're not talking about it. And so in each category,
Speaker 3: the ability to effectuate policy at scale has been a
Speaker 3: gift and a dream. But at the same time, it's
Speaker 3: disaster time over and over, and it eclipses a lot,
Speaker 3: and it makes for a lot of situational politics when
Speaker 3: I have a sort of policy sustainable mindset around politics.
Speaker 3: And of course you had Trump into the mixture. Trump
Speaker 3: one point zero his last two years, had Trump two
Speaker 3: point zero in his first two years of his second term.
Speaker 3: That also requires some adjustments and some tacking and.
Speaker 2: Just reality now different reality for me.
Speaker 1: Another memory I have of living here and my knowledge
Speaker 1: of my awareness of California politics was I thought Gray
Speaker 1: Davis was a nice guy. I thought he was a
Speaker 1: good guy. He was a decent governor. Still when I
Speaker 1: met him, I love Grey Davis. So when that all happened,
Speaker 1: darryl Issa decides he's going to do the recall of
Speaker 1: Gray Davis. The whole enron thing was involved the brown outs,
Speaker 1: and Issa thinks he's going to be anointed. He helps
Speaker 1: to put the whole thing together. He produces the recall,
Speaker 1: he wins, Davis is gone, and then they turn him
Speaker 1: in the tap of the shoulder and they go, it's
Speaker 1: not your night, kid, And they bring Arnold in to
Speaker 1: become the governor. No political record, no nothing. He becomes
Speaker 1: the governor. And I've had a lot of acoustic comments
Speaker 1: about that as well. But you had a recall effort
Speaker 1: launched against you.
Speaker 2: What was that? I mean was that intense? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Well yeah, because I mean talk about you know, a
Speaker 3: little humiliating God. And I got four young kids. I
Speaker 3: mean they're going to school there. You know, my oldest
Speaker 3: daughter ended up being homeschool because it just didn't work.
Speaker 3: The bullying and everything else was going on. And that's hard.
Speaker 3: It's you know, hard to explain. You know, we couldn't
Speaker 3: get it. I mean, there was I'm not exaggerated, I
Speaker 3: say over a year where you couldn't get out the
Speaker 3: front door of your house because of protests. You know,
Speaker 3: Hitler must the whole thing during that time, and and
Speaker 3: and and so it just extended, and you know, and
Speaker 3: I think the hardest part I was, you know, it's
Speaker 3: strange to say this, but you know, I was working,
Speaker 3: you know, I'd written a book called Citizens It's don't
Speaker 3: even matter, but I had, you know, knew Kingridge was
Speaker 3: talking about, and we were taught, we became you know,
Speaker 3: I became friendly with Nude on some ideas and was
Speaker 3: able to work with folks on the other side. And
Speaker 3: then there's Nude on TV promoting my recall, and there's
Speaker 3: you know, Mike Huckleby out there promoting the recall and
Speaker 3: then I think getting a few bucks for it as well,
Speaker 3: and my friends and the legislature of Republicans I was
Speaker 3: working with co chairing the recall, and I'm like, well, okay,
Speaker 3: and I thought politics was all local a little old
Speaker 3: fashioned there, right, All politics is local, bs, All politics
Speaker 3: is national now.
Speaker 2: And they came hard. The RNC put in the first month.
Speaker 3: I had to raise eighty four million dollars to defend it,
Speaker 3: and there were polls just a few months before that
Speaker 3: showed it neck to neck. We were able to pull
Speaker 3: away with a twenty plus point margin. And it was
Speaker 3: a big mistake for the Republicans because then my reelect,
Speaker 3: you know, it was a year later. Yeah, and we
Speaker 3: kind of just coated it through. But I'll tell you
Speaker 3: it sharpened my muscles, got me focused with a different
Speaker 3: there's sense of finality with a recall, in that humility
Speaker 3: is a finality. And then my focus, my energy and
Speaker 3: also you know, the points of contrast. That's why I
Speaker 3: started going out on the road, started this pack That's
Speaker 3: Campaign for Democracy because I had a few dollars left
Speaker 3: over from my campaign, put twenty million into this pack,
Speaker 3: raised more money and started going. I went on Fox
Speaker 3: with Sean Hannity, did those debates with DeSantis, started doing
Speaker 3: billboards in states across this country, taking on some of
Speaker 3: the Republican leadership, calling them out for their hypocrisy, doing
Speaker 3: the same thing with full page newspaper ads, did TV
Speaker 3: commercials across the country, and then it led me to
Speaker 3: sort of getting more involved with the Biden campaign. Was
Speaker 3: one of his chief surrogates, was out there doing the
Speaker 3: spin room and the debates for better for worse, and
Speaker 3: extended a little bit to common meaning I found myself
Speaker 3: now recognizing the politics in DC and what's happening across
Speaker 3: this country was impacting the state in ways I honestly
Speaker 3: I didn't fully understand at the level that I should have.
Speaker 3: And so I'm a different guy from that. And of course,
Speaker 3: you know, God is my witness. We're sitting here.
Speaker 2: Yesterday they submitted another one. So do we call you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So here we go. So you know, I'm that may
Speaker 2: I don't know, it could happen this time. I don't know.
Speaker 2: We'll see. So it's just God, no, hell of hell.
Speaker 2: I like that acting thing. You talked about Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: his review. Enough Jesus. But you can pivot.
Speaker 1: You could pivot speaking of acting my sense, and you
Speaker 1: can fine tune this. And of course you know infinitely
Speaker 1: more than I do about this, which is that tax
Speaker 1: breaks in a state like this are very fragile because
Speaker 1: people are like tax backs for Hollywood. Hell no, we
Speaker 1: have so many other things we got to pay for.
Speaker 1: We're giving so many things away. There are social programs
Speaker 1: in this state unlike any other state that costs millions
Speaker 1: and billions of dollars. And so when you come and
Speaker 1: say we want more tax backs for Hollywood, a lot
Speaker 1: of the population of the state north that southes like
Speaker 1: screw you.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The problem is many of the jobs have left. And
Speaker 1: my friends who used to go out to Atlanta and
Speaker 1: rent a house, they don't rent to house.
Speaker 2: They bought a house there. They left here. They've left
Speaker 2: this state.
Speaker 1: The business is imploding in Los Angeles, correct, And the
Speaker 1: question becomes, is there any chance of increased tax baks
Speaker 1: for the movie business.
Speaker 3: We're going to double it, you are, Yeah, it's going
Speaker 3: to be higher than New York. I proposed that a
Speaker 3: few months ago, and that was right before the fires.
Speaker 3: What are the fires only reinforced the imperative and also
Speaker 3: working with all our friends, some of you know, the
Speaker 3: who's who of Hollywood, saying it's time to double down.
Speaker 3: I'm bringing production back to California, particularly this time of
Speaker 3: recovery and renewal, and so I want to see them
Speaker 3: step up as well.
Speaker 2: But we're going to step up.
Speaker 3: It's in my budget and I'm gonna I said to
Speaker 3: my legislative friends, I said, there's no budget, I'll detail
Speaker 3: the budget. If we don't get it done, it's going
Speaker 3: to get done, and we're going to do other things
Speaker 3: to start promoting bringing people back. Look, you know, world
Speaker 3: we invented is competing against us in so many ways.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, across the spectrum of industries. And
Speaker 3: so I think California started resting on its laurels a
Speaker 3: little bit, and we didn't invest in our future like
Speaker 3: we did in the past in the fifties and sixties,
Speaker 3: And we have to reconcile that. Now we've got one
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty billion dollar infrastructure plan that's bigger than
Speaker 3: it was during the Pat Brown era in the fifties
Speaker 3: and sixties. We're starting to make big investments, bold investments,
Speaker 3: and quantum and immunology, new public private partnerships. Again, that
Speaker 3: conditions the Silicon Valley continue to thrive. That's why you
Speaker 3: have the NVIDIAs out here, and you have so I mean,
Speaker 3: the sam For all the people hating on California, they
Speaker 3: still seem to have so many of their business imprints
Speaker 3: here in this great state. You know, we we have
Speaker 3: progressive tax system, but we have an increased state taxes
Speaker 3: since twenty eleven Trump administration did with the salt the
Speaker 3: state and local salt deductions, which are impacting you in
Speaker 3: New York as well. It's hurt the big Blue states.
Speaker 3: But I'm mindful of sensitivities around taxes. I'm mindful about
Speaker 3: the need to do regulatory reform sequel. I've done forty
Speaker 3: two secret reform bills. We've done streamlining on large scale projects. Again,
Speaker 3: I watch Fox, I pay attention Newsmax one American News.
Speaker 3: I don't turn my back to the critics. But there
Speaker 3: is a sort of California arrangement syndrome out there that
Speaker 3: is just sort of ridiculous. This notion that this is
Speaker 3: the only state that has challenges. It's just comedic, but
Speaker 3: it's damaging. We record breaking tourism last year. We have
Speaker 3: a surplus again. We have a state with population growing again.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't know that that's not prevalent. It's not part
Speaker 3: of the discussion golf by the fires. It's been in
Speaker 3: golfing the fires. It's you know, it's a failed state,
Speaker 3: you know, California, And so it's you know, it's a
Speaker 3: whole industry California. It's a man and I get it.
Speaker 3: It's like you and so, yeah, buck up. But for me,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not just bucking up. It's like it's
Speaker 3: a big it's pride for me again, as a guy
Speaker 3: lives here who cares about the state, is to make
Speaker 3: a case a new for it.
Speaker 2: And I'm a little CLINTONI about it.
Speaker 3: There's nothing wrong with it that can't be fixed with
Speaker 3: by what's right with it, And so you know, I
Speaker 3: need some boosters out there. Some of the biggest critics,
Speaker 3: again are the biggest beneficiaries. Elon Musk, why do you
Speaker 3: become a billionaire? His first billion came from California because
Speaker 3: of the regulations, not despite them, because of them, because
Speaker 3: of our vehicle fuel mandates that helped create that industry.
Speaker 3: Billions and billions of dollars of subsidies that the people
Speaker 3: of the state of California, not just the federal government,
Speaker 3: has provided these guys, and yet they're tech in the state,
Speaker 3: even though this state created a state of mind, that
Speaker 3: quality of imagination, and a regulatory framework that made risk
Speaker 3: taking work for them. God bless our entrepreneurial talents. Thank
Speaker 3: you for their entrepreneurship. I don't begrudge their success, but
Speaker 3: I do take a little umbrage by their constant drumbeat
Speaker 3: of criticism that I just find unbecoming of people that
Speaker 3: have enjoyed the benefits and success that have been a
Speaker 3: big partner that we've been partners in this state.
Speaker 2: Eighty four.
Speaker 1: I'm here in this state. I move here. I lived
Speaker 1: in Venice for five years. So I drive over the
Speaker 1: four h five. You'd hit the top of Mulholland you'd
Speaker 1: be going into the valley heading north, and it was
Speaker 1: like mustard gas, the band of toxins in the air
Speaker 1: in the valley in California in the eighties, it was
Speaker 1: I couldn't even believe it. Your eyes were teering if
Speaker 1: you had the top down of the car. And of
Speaker 1: course California renowned for this making the emissions laws change
Speaker 1: and change change. When I lived here, everybody lived on
Speaker 1: the west side. Nobody lived Inland, Silver Lake, Los Felis,
Speaker 1: Korea Town down to Nobody lived there unless you didn't
Speaker 1: have any money, and you all live on the west side.
Speaker 1: Now the West side is like the upper east side
Speaker 1: of Manhattan. Only old, rich people live there, and all
Speaker 1: the young people have moved Inland because of the change
Speaker 1: in the air qual and pop'll forget it and change everything.
Speaker 1: In the late sixties, La was basically unlivable. The business
Speaker 1: community was outraged.
Speaker 3: They went to this guy up in Sacramento, happens to
Speaker 3: share a similar office, guy named Ronald Reagan, Governor. They said,
Speaker 3: Jesus Reagan, you know this. This smog's out of control
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles. We can't recruit employees, let alone businesses,
Speaker 3: corporate headquarters, etc. You got to clean this so literally,
Speaker 3: modern air quality movements started with Ronald Reagan, Republican created
Speaker 3: the California Air Resources Board. Three years later, a guy
Speaker 3: named Richard Nixon, Republican, codifies California's waiver with something called
Speaker 3: the Clean Air Act. Two Republican leaders that allowed us
Speaker 3: to have these established rules every hour.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I few every once in a while.
Speaker 3: But the point being, those are the rules that are
Speaker 3: being vandalized by the current administration. Those are the rules
Speaker 3: they are coming after. That are the rules that established
Speaker 3: the strategies that ultimately led to some of the improvements
Speaker 3: that you rightly notice.
Speaker 1: You know, for me, I would come out here and
Speaker 1: when you're in Toronto, when you're in New York, when
Speaker 1: you're in Vancouver, when you're in Chicago. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: you're going to different places in this country. Orlando where
Speaker 1: they had to grow an indigenous crop of people to
Speaker 1: work there. De Lamentis apparently was somebody who coaxed people
Speaker 1: in the unions to bring furniture makers to come and
Speaker 1: build sets in North Carolina. When you build this DDL
Speaker 1: studios there, you got to have an indigenous worker base. Now,
Speaker 1: there is no indigenous workerbase on the planet that compares
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles. And I always say the same story.
Speaker 1: You go to New York and the prop guy would
Speaker 1: say what kind of watch you want to wear?
Speaker 2: And I would go, well, let's take a look.
Speaker 1: And he opened up a case and there was fifty
Speaker 1: watches in there in a case you come to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles at the studio, the guy goes, what kind of
Speaker 1: watch you want to wear? And you want to know,
Speaker 1: let's take a look. He rolls in two steam trunks
Speaker 1: with four hundred watches in them. Hollywood is Hollywood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Hollywood is Hollywood and everybody who knows now as I
Speaker 1: get a little emotional about this, which is, you only
Speaker 1: want to make movies here if you can. I love
Speaker 1: working here. It's the best of the best. There's nothing
Speaker 1: like shooting a movie in LA and I want to
Speaker 1: see that come back one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: And just to give me a little bona fidies for
Speaker 3: me on this. When Arno was governor, I remember back
Speaker 3: to one I I was mayor, he was governor, and
Speaker 3: I was very I was very vocal by one critique
Speaker 3: of Arnold. There were a few, but one of them
Speaker 3: was like, why the hell aren't you doing more to
Speaker 3: keep Hollywood production here? You're Arnold's sports the mayor, And
Speaker 3: He's like, well, he made the point that you made earlier,
Speaker 3: which is interesting, was a legitimate sense. I gotta do this.
Speaker 3: I got to then do it. For biotech. We're the
Speaker 3: birthplace of biotech and life science. And Nanto technology line
Speaker 3: they want, and so it was erased the bottom from
Speaker 3: his perspective. But in San Francisco, we became the first
Speaker 3: city to do it. So we did it, and I
Speaker 3: got an NBC production, which was a big deal, at
Speaker 3: least at the time I made it a big deal.
Speaker 2: It was a small ball thing. It was a little
Speaker 2: TV show.
Speaker 3: But with our tax credits to make the point, and
Speaker 3: then of course I ran for governor making a commitment.
Speaker 3: We were able to increase the tax credits. A few
Speaker 3: years ago. We were able to expand how you can
Speaker 3: utilize them a little more flexibility.
Speaker 2: With some questions there.
Speaker 3: But now I said, look we're playing small ball. We
Speaker 3: got to double it to the point. So look that's
Speaker 3: one way, but I think it's more important than that.
Speaker 3: We got to make it. You know this industry, and
Speaker 3: I you know, and I appreciate you know this better
Speaker 3: than anyone. And with all the labor issues, I mean,
Speaker 3: the SAG and everything else that happens, so you have COVID,
Speaker 3: these things are shut down, strikes, strikes, social unrest. George
Speaker 3: Floyd all this, you stack all that stress and anxiety,
Speaker 3: all the burning, but it hasn't come back since the
Speaker 3: strikes entered at all, even back to where it was prior.
Speaker 3: So this is a this is code read, this is
Speaker 3: life support time, and it's a point of deep pride
Speaker 3: that first of all, it's the point of pride of
Speaker 3: hearing you say how much you love to be down
Speaker 3: here movies, because that's that's intangible. There's no legislation for that.
Speaker 3: It's spirit pride, and that's the game that should separate
Speaker 3: the game played here from anywhere else. But we have
Speaker 3: to have more muscle, and we as a state need
Speaker 3: to be more supportive and create the conditions to stabilize
Speaker 3: and send the signals that we're going to have the
Speaker 3: back of this industry. And again, it's not just people
Speaker 3: like you with love and respect. It's the person that
Speaker 3: rolled up in that car that was showing you those
Speaker 3: watches that are the beneficiaries of you.
Speaker 2: Beat in town. It's the damn the world.
Speaker 3: Yes, and they and they deserve middle class folks, hardworking
Speaker 3: folks that are out of work right now.
Speaker 1: My last thing for you is this, which that you're
Speaker 1: one of the few people, I mean many people in
Speaker 1: your profession everyone, but in life, you're one of the
Speaker 1: few people who you know when your job's over.
Speaker 2: Except I don't. I mean, these recalls come, I'm a.
Speaker 1: Ignoring that twenty twenty four. So the next selection is
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight in Washington. That'll leave you two
Speaker 1: years to kind of focus on. What are you going
Speaker 1: to focus on those two years?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a milk cart and I got to sell
Speaker 2: by date. I get it.
Speaker 3: And it's very sobering, and I'm very mindful of that.
Speaker 3: And again with the sense of urgency that I brought
Speaker 3: into this job after the recall, and I have no
Speaker 3: idea what the hell's.
Speaker 2: Going to happen.
Speaker 3: That's some idea is that you know what everybody's like, Well,
Speaker 3: what does Democratic Party need to do to get back
Speaker 3: on to that? What are the real why did Kamala
Speaker 3: Harris loose? So I'm up to nine pages of analysis.
Speaker 3: Each page contradicts the prior page. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: we're going to have to figure out where the hell
Speaker 3: this party is or how we get out of this.
Speaker 2: I think all of.
Speaker 3: Most of it will be shaped by what Trump does
Speaker 3: and in reaction too, but I think there's got to
Speaker 3: be a little bit of a deeper reflection on this
Speaker 3: party and where we'll be in four years, who the
Speaker 3: hell knows.
Speaker 1: I won't ask you that question, but I will say
Speaker 1: as we finish, I don't think your caretaking years are over.
Speaker 1: You still have some more work to do to take
Speaker 1: care of people, to take care of people, and you
Speaker 1: may have to move out of California.
Speaker 3: So we'll say we need another California politician, that we
Speaker 3: need a.
Speaker 1: California governor to step up and solve some of the
Speaker 1: country's problems.
Speaker 2: God bless You're good to be with you.
Speaker 1: My thanks to California Governor Gavin Newsom. This episode was
Speaker 1: recorded at Lime Studios in Santa Monica and CDM Studios
Speaker 1: in New York City. We're produced by Kathleen Russo, Zach MacNeice,
Speaker 1: and Victoria De Martin. Our engineer is Frank Imperio. Our
Speaker 1: social media manager is Danielle Gingrich. Special thanks to Chris O'Keefe.
Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing is brought to you
Speaker 1: by iHeart Radio.