Speaker 1: The show. Major League Baseball has got a problem, got
Speaker 1: a problem with the COVID. We'll talk more about that
Speaker 1: coming up with They canceled the game for tonight and
Speaker 1: one for tomorrow. I think, right, here's your Armstrong and
Speaker 1: Getty daily quiz question. We don't have one of those,
Speaker 1: but if we did, this would be it. What is
Speaker 1: the largest American city in the US with a Republican mayor?
Speaker 1: That's right, San Diego, and San Diego Mayor Kevin Falconer
Speaker 1: joins us. Now, hello, mayor, how are you, sir? They'll know, no,
Speaker 1: good morning, great to be with you. Thank you. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's our pleasure. So listen, let's get right into the
Speaker 1: very very interesting times we're living in UH and it
Speaker 1: is a challenging time to be a big city mayor.
Speaker 1: I know. Let's start with the COVID nineteen. What's your
Speaker 1: point of view on restrictions and masks and what the
Speaker 1: governor Newsom in California is doing in opening schools that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Where does San Diego stand? Lots in there?
Speaker 1: And I'll and I'll tell you guys, one of the
Speaker 1: things that um I've done, particularly when it comes to
Speaker 1: small businesses here in San Diego is to really be innovative,
Speaker 1: to be creative, taking the approach that we have to
Speaker 1: keep our small businesses in our economy going, we have
Speaker 1: to keep folks employed. And so one of the things
Speaker 1: that we've done here in San Diego, I've issued a
Speaker 1: series of executive orders a couple of weeks ago trying
Speaker 1: to get creative to let restaurants come out to the
Speaker 1: you know, the sidewalks, the parking lots, gyms, barbershops, others,
Speaker 1: places of worship. And because I will tell you this
Speaker 1: is so difficult, particularly um on these small businesses and
Speaker 1: folks that are struggling to survive, I'm doing everything I
Speaker 1: can to make sure that we have that infrastructure um
Speaker 1: for them to return to work once they're in fact
Speaker 1: allowed to amen to that. That is so good to hear.
Speaker 1: It's fairly rare these days. What's the school situation? Because
Speaker 1: I think virtually every man, woman and child in America
Speaker 1: wants the schools to be functioning well they do. And
Speaker 1: I think you know, every community wants a safe return
Speaker 1: right for for teachers and for kids. And it's it's
Speaker 1: it's difficult, particularly for you know, for work and parents
Speaker 1: who are trying to plan what's going to happen, you know,
Speaker 1: holding down a job, wondering about their kids, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think what one of the things that I've really
Speaker 1: advocated for in in San Diego is to have that
Speaker 1: that local control based upon the facts of the ground here,
Speaker 1: because whether you're talking about schools, whether you're talking about
Speaker 1: our economy, that kind of the one size fits all approach, um,
Speaker 1: it's tough to do in the state that is so
Speaker 1: diverse is our So look, I think we ought to
Speaker 1: have common sense rules. I think we ought to do
Speaker 1: it safely, but I think we ought to we ought
Speaker 1: to allow school districts and parents to be a big
Speaker 1: part of that on the local level. You know, you
Speaker 1: live in interesting times when you're like walking through a
Speaker 1: business section of any city and this happening around the
Speaker 1: gas lamp in San Diego. But if you're walking through
Speaker 1: and you see boarded up windows and you don't I
Speaker 1: want you and you think, what if that's boarded up
Speaker 1: because the COVID drove them out of business, or because
Speaker 1: a violent mob smashed the windows out, could be they're
Speaker 1: one you haven't had to deal with the the extent
Speaker 1: of violent mobs that some of the blue cities have
Speaker 1: the cities with Democrat mayors. What do you think they're
Speaker 1: doing wrong? What would you do in that situation? You know, look,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you we we try to we protect everybody's
Speaker 1: right for a free speech here in San Diego. But
Speaker 1: of course we're also going enforce very clear rules of
Speaker 1: the road, um, and protecting uh, you know, people, protecting property.
Speaker 1: I think that's incredibly, incredibly important. And you know, look
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that we're doing with our
Speaker 1: community policing and you know, really out there working with
Speaker 1: folks as best we can. We're gonna keep people safe.
Speaker 1: But again, we're gonna enforce clear rules of the road
Speaker 1: here in San Diego. I think that served us. I
Speaker 1: think I served as well. UM. And you know, look,
Speaker 1: it's important that you invest in your police department. Gentlemen,
Speaker 1: We've done that in San Diego. You want to hire
Speaker 1: the best. You want to hire folks and give them
Speaker 1: the training so they're going to do the right thing
Speaker 1: on the job. That takes dollars, that takes effort, and
Speaker 1: that takes support. San Diego Mere Kevin Faulconer is on
Speaker 1: the line. Understand, you did an interview with CNN earlier today. Uh,
Speaker 1: those people aren't very bright, are they. Did you notice
Speaker 1: that they just answer that in full go on link
Speaker 1: with Okay, so you can foul off a curveball. We
Speaker 1: know that about his honor the mayor. Now, Uh, we
Speaker 1: understand protesters showed up your house at your house a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. How'd that go? You know, that's
Speaker 1: unfortunately part of reality these days. Um. Look, it's it's again.
Speaker 1: That's not going to change my views on doing the
Speaker 1: right thing. Uh. And making sure you know everything that
Speaker 1: we're doing is I said, from our from our police department,
Speaker 1: of our public safety and you know, helping to helping
Speaker 1: to make sure we're giving everybody the tools and the
Speaker 1: support that they need. Um. But you know, I've really
Speaker 1: really strove down here in San Diego to make sure
Speaker 1: that you know it's pretty open. I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: exactly where I stand. I'm gonna tell you what I
Speaker 1: think is the right thing for us to do. UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes you're gonna have protesters to disagree.
Speaker 1: That's okay, But I'm always going to push hard to
Speaker 1: do the right thing. We have listeners all around the
Speaker 1: country listening right now, astonished to hear a big city
Speaker 1: mayor making sense. So let's go ahead and throw you
Speaker 1: one more tough pitch to hit. And that's that. San Diego,
Speaker 1: like somebody West Coast cities, has dealt with a pretty
Speaker 1: significant homeless problem. Um, not only folks out of work, etcetera,
Speaker 1: but lots of bums and junkies. Um. What's different about
Speaker 1: the way San Diego handles it, for instance, than than
Speaker 1: other cities. Well, you know, guys, I'll tell you we
Speaker 1: were We've taken a pretty direct approach. I think it's
Speaker 1: a compassionate approaches. As I've said, it's not compassionate to
Speaker 1: let somebody live, sleep, and die on the street. Um.
Speaker 1: And so we have I think that right balance of
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a place for you to go. We
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on our bridge shelters. You know,
Speaker 1: columusist was down six percent in San Diego this year.
Speaker 1: It was down six percent last year. I think we
Speaker 1: have an approach again that that's working, that's in passionate, compassionate,
Speaker 1: but again allowing you know, I don't allow tents on
Speaker 1: the sidewalk in San Diego. That is not compassionate to
Speaker 1: do that. We want to give people to help, we
Speaker 1: want to give them the support. Um, I think we're
Speaker 1: heading in the right direction when we certainly have a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of work to do here in
Speaker 1: San Diego. But it's it's really gonna it's incredibly important,
Speaker 1: we keep people saying, particularly during this time of COVID
Speaker 1: UH and I think we've had a lot of success
Speaker 1: in that in San Diego thus far, um taking that
Speaker 1: swift action to get folks in shelter in our convention center,
Speaker 1: all the positive tests, but really working again to get
Speaker 1: them that place of their own, and a place of
Speaker 1: their own is not out on the streets. So I
Speaker 1: can't just be a junkie and sleep on the streets
Speaker 1: and poop on the streets in San Diego. Well, no, look,
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's of course, that's not what anybody wants.
Speaker 1: And although you have big cities, Kevin that are full
Speaker 1: of that and policies that encourage it, and a lot
Speaker 1: of those policies are wrong. And I'm very outspoken about it, guys,
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you why, because when you look at
Speaker 1: what's happening, particularly in California, as we have taken what
Speaker 1: used to be, for example, a felony on doing heroin
Speaker 1: and meth and fed me making that to a misdemeanor
Speaker 1: on our streets. I would suggest you that's the wrong approach,
Speaker 1: that is, that is the wrong of what you want
Speaker 1: to get people help. You want to give people support,
Speaker 1: but you need to have consequences for action. Again, it's
Speaker 1: not compassionate to let somebody live on the street addicted
Speaker 1: to substance abuse and others. That's not going to help anybody.
Speaker 1: San Diego, Mara, Kevin Faulkner. Hey, really enjoy the chat,
Speaker 1: Mr Mayor. Let's do it again soon. Looking forward to guys. Thanks,
Speaker 1: thanks for the time. Yep, you got it? How much?
Speaker 1: How does that contrast with your mayors of Portlandia, of
Speaker 1: San Francisco, of Seattle, night and day? But isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1: You can see a boarded up business thin I wonder
Speaker 1: if they went out of business because they weren't allowed
Speaker 1: to be in business or because the protesters are allowed
Speaker 1: to smash it. Yeah, could be either, right? Right? How
Speaker 1: odd