If I am six forty years later with mo Kelly, We're live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. Another day, another Metro stabbing. At what point do
we become numb to the idea of someone being harmed on MTA. I think
I stopped actually emotionally responding about a month ago. I actually expect to open
up the news, open up my browser, go to maybe KTLA dot com,
Kcal dot com, La Times dot com, and I expect the top
story to be someone being harmed on Metro because more often than not that's the
case. And he probably heard during the news break the report by Chris Adler
talking about a person being stabbed, and it's one of those stories. Is
still kind of confusing. There's some mix up as far as whether this was
a stabbing on a Metro bus or was it on a bus stop, or
was it on the bus and it then spilled over to the bus stop.
But someone got stabbed on a bus, near a bus, around a bus
or at a bus stop, and that's according to the La County Sheriff's Department.
I say that there's some confusion because I like the details. I like
to be exact, I like to be as correct as possible. The Sheriff's
department told KTLA the attack occurred at a bus stop. LA County Supervisor Janis
Hahn released a statement saying the victor was stabbed by another passer while on the
bus. It's kind of a big deal the difference, because for me,
someone getting stabbed at a random bus stop, that for me, is not
the same in the big picture, in the larger scheme of things, It's
not the same thing as someone stabbing someone else on a bus. Because if
you've ever ridden a bus, and I have, and I'm pretty sure Twala
Sharp has. I'm not so sure about Mark Ronner. No, I haven't
written one since I got to LA. So that's like in the six year
territory and nope, and it's not looking real likely at this rate either.
What will give you that impression? What out there is souring you on the
idea the fact that I am mortal and only made of flesh and blood.
Oh okay, Well, you may have noticed, whether you've ridden a bus
out here or not, that most bus stops really don't provide any type of
protection. Protection. They're not managed per se by Metro. I'm not going
to hold Metro responsible for every bus stop in La because, if you know,
most bus stops are just a bench or just a sign near a corner
on the street. Yeah, I've been at the bus stop where it's it's
just a sign the bus is going to stop at the corner. I don't
know that makes Metro inherently more dangerous. That's why I want to be specific.
I want to be precise as to whether this happened on the bus where
there were two passengers and one stabbed the other, or whether it was something
that started on the bus and it spilled over onto the sidewalk, Whether someone
was just on the sidewalk standing next to a sign that said Metro waiting for
a bus and got stabbed. I don't know, but La County Shriff's Department
they're saying it was on the bus for whatever reason. Supervisor Han, who's
also the vice chair of the Metro Board of Directors, said otherwise. Quote
this is her statement. Quote. This attack today on a Metro bus in
Lynnwood is horrific and yet another grim reason that we need a surge of law
enforcement on our trans system. People who rely on Metro every day need to
know they can take our buses and train safely. I appreciate our Sheriff's deputies
who responded to the scene quickly and have detained a person of interest. Thankfully.
I am told that the victims juries are not life threatening. I am
praying for their quick recovery, and I'm so sorry that they had to endure
this close quote. But here's another question I have, and I'm just thinking
out loud. I personally wonder what the real tipping point is. Everyone at
this point acknowledges the status quo, and that status quo is unsustainable. Just
about all the public officials agree on this. We agree that Metro is unsafe.
Even the mayor, the chair of the Board of director said Metro is
unsafe. We're all here, We're all at the same party. But what
is the real tipping point? What makes an immediate change? What would be
too far? In other words, where you'd have to do something immediately,
What would make La County move heaven and earth to make a significant change,
Because we haven't yet, don't think that. Because Mayor Bass said she's gonna
add another fifty additional officers spread across all of MTA, that is either major,
that is either significant or is going to make any type of indelible mark.
No, it's not going to do any of that. I don't know
what the tipping point is. Is it five more stabbings, is it four
shootings? Is it three muggings? Maybe two more crashes with cars? I
don't know. A partridge in a pear tree. I don't know what would
do the trick. But I know that even though we may have violence on
the metro system every single day, we have a stabbing, seemingly the math
is getting close to every other day, nothing has changed. And we may
hear about, well, we can't do anything until a fiscal year twenty twenty
four is over or July first of this year. We hear that, but
nothing significantly has changed. We've heard promises about more law enforcement, a surge
and presence of law enforcement on trainings, on buses, on platforms. We've
heard that, but we've not seen that. And I know people in Los
Angeles County haven't felt that. So what is the tipping point? Do you
need? Like a mass casualty event? And I'm not trying to be funny,
I'm being very serious because the crime is not only continuing, I would
say it is escalating. And if the crime is escalating, and our response
is not commensurate with that, it's not keeping up with that, it's not
consistent with that. Then we are falling further and further behind in addressing it.
Because as sure as I'm sitting here, and as sure as you're listening
in your car, or maybe you're at the gym, or maybe you're sitting
around the table with your family having dinner, as sure as we're all having
this moment together, that there will be some other violence connected to Metro probably
before the end of the week. Are we just going to stay here and
assume that we're not going to do anything and just allow it to happen and
then issue another statement saying, oh my goodness, this is so horrible,
this is so terrible, this can't continue. Or are we going to actually
do something which lets the public know, the writers and also the operators know
that what happened before, what happened yesterday will not be allowed to continue.
In other words, do something more than pay lip service. You're listening to
Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty And if you grew
up going to the beach like me, then you know this is the best
time of the year. I find remember getting out there on my boogie board
at MacDonald Beach and Hermosa Beach getting pulled out by riptides. Was too stupid
to know that they were kind of dangerous. But I had a great time
going to the beach, and as I got older, I realized that southern
California beaches are some of the dirtiest in the world, no exaggeration, and
the La County Department of Public Health, to that end, is again warning
residents to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing in ocean waters at six area
beaches due to high bacteria levels. High bacteria levels I assume that means at
excrement and raw sewage. It kind of throws a wrench from them. Memorial
Day weekend just around the corner, and when these clouds go away, let
me tell you, the sun is just warming us beautifully. And you can
see some of those surfers catching the waves. And while some may avoid the
water, these guys say nothing can come between them and their waves. We
do want to go ahead and talk to you about some of these beach warnings
issued by the Lost Angelis County Department of Public Health. The department is asking
those planning to visit beaches on the warnings list to avoid ocean waters in these
specific conditions. Take a look for Malibu Lagoon at Surfrider Beach, which is
where we are, there's a warning one hundred yards up and down the coast
from the public restrooms. For Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica one hundred yards
up and down the coast from the pier, Pico Kenter's storm drain at Santa
Monica Beach State Beach one hundred yards up and down the coast from the storm
drain, And for Topanga Canyon Beach in Malibu, one hundred yards up and
down the coast from the lagoon. This beach also given an F rating by
the way from heel the bay f The department is also asking folks to avoid
the entire swim area at Inner Cabrio Beach in San Pedro and Mother's Beach in
Marina del Rey. That's way too complicated. I can't remember all that,
You can't remember all that, and I shouldn't have to google is my beach
one hundred yards of this or one hundred yard from that. I'm gonna make
it real simple for both you and me follow along. If you have to
list six different beaches, let's say within a forty five mile range of each
other. If you have to list six different beaches, you might as well
just say all of them are unsafe, all of them are dirty, all
of them have unsafe bacteria levels, all of them are contaminated. Just say
the whole coast of California is contaminated, from Baja California into Oregon and everywhere
in between. Run a yellow caution tape from San Diego to Crescent City.
Just shut it all down. That way, nobody feels left out. Just
say the Pacific Ocean is closed for business this holiday weekend. I know it's
Memorial Day week and coming up. You want to go to the beach.
If I were like forty years younger, I would want to go to the
beach myself. But you know what, Pacific Ocean is closed for business this
holiday weekend. Just say that. Don't bore me, don't bore to all
it. It's definitely don't bore Stephan with the specific bacteria levels. Who cares
about that? Keep it simple, stupid. Contaminated is contaminated, Pregnant is
pregnant, Dead is dead is ditty is ditty. There aren't varying degrees of
certain things. If I say, oh, it's ditty, well you know
exactly what it is. No, no, no, there's no real discussion
to have if you say they're pregnant. Okay, got it, it is
what it is. I mentioned that because the story also says that contamination warnings
were lifted for four beaches. Do you really care which four there are?
I don't know. Nope, nope. Why Because contaminated is contaminated. It's
not like the beaches are partitioned off. It's not like Hermosa Beach is separated
from Redondo Beach is separated from Manhattan Beach. It doesn't work that way.
How do I know? Well, let's use science. One worm ruins the
apple. One turd ruins the whole swimming pool. Am I wrong? Am
I wrong? Sewage doesn't observe imaginary beach boundaries. Breakwaters, they may break
water, they may stop water, but they don't stop excrement. They don't
stop raw sewage. They don't stop bacteria, They don't stop contamination. Just
say the beach is closed until further notice. Just say, don't go into
water, any water if it's related to the Pacific Ocean for the next I
don't know, three four weeks. We'll get back to you in maybe July.
Let's check in again around the fourth of July. Let's check in the
next major holiday weekend and see if the beaches are any better. I maybe
I was just too dumb to know when I was a teenager, or maybe
the beaches were less contaminated, or we know more science now and maybe they
were always this contaminated. But I get the sense, I really do that
they were always that contaminated because this was back in the time when we had
small It was just footloose and fancy free with our environment. It didn't really
matter. We just did whatever. It didn't matter if if the ocean was
black, we would still get in the water. We would still go boogie
boarding, was still go surfing. I never really could surf. I was
never that talented, but I did boogie board. I had a mean boogieyboard
talent. Just say you can't get in the water at all. I don't
remember the last time I was in the water at a California beach. And
I know some of this we've covered before, but it bears mentioned again.
If you've ever listened to Soul Cow Saturdays with Twallas Sharp, He's made it
very clear how he feels about these poop beaches. They're not new, Nope,
the water is full of it every single week. Why is this week
end any different? Okay, you have a beach advisory this week. I
appreciate that, But is this week really any different than last week? And
honestly, let's say they lift the contamination warnings on any of these beaches.
And honestly, I can't remember which ones they are. I heard some of
them are in Santa Monica. I don't know May it might have been Will
Rogers. I can't remember, and I know you can't either. That's why
I said keep it simple. They're all contaminated. Why we think of it
this way? If someone said that a portion of the water in your bathtub
was contaminated, wouldn't you think all of it was contaminated? And maybe that's
an oversimplification of how ocean water works, but I don't know if it's that
different. If you tell me it's contaminated at Will Rogers State Beach, well,
I assume the beach which is right next door to it, or right
next to wherever it was contaminated is probably also contaminated. So do you want
to risk it if these advisories matter to you? If they matter, and
they may not matter at all, because I'm quite sure there will be people
in the water come Friday, regardless of these advisories, regardless of these warnings,
regardless of the excrement and raw sewage which may be found in the oceans.
They're gouldna be there. But does it really make any difference if they
say, well, it's it's better today, we can lift the advisory.
It was really bad yesterday, but now it's a little bit better. It
is scientifically more safer to go in the water. I just keep it simple,
and I just assume it's contaminated from the from San Diego to Crescent City
and that way it's a lot easier to wall. Are you going in the
water? Hell? No, up Mark Runner, Are you going in the
water? Not on your life moat not even my life. Knew his life,
right, Stephan? Are you going in the water? I not?
Nope? Okay, this real, it's a real quick pop quiz, gonna
go around real quick, Stephan, Can you tell me the beaches which were
deemed unsafe, all contaminated already, right right? Can you name them?
I can't, Mark? Can you name them? The number two beach?
Okay, that's all about Tuala. Can you name any of them that were
deemed contaminated? I think it was from Newport all the way back down in
Malibu. Why not? Why not? Because if you use that as your
starting point, you can't finish wrong. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly
on Demand from KFI AM six forty. If you should be able to afford
a house here in California, you're blessed. God bless you, and I
mean that sincerely. If you are of able to afford paying rent here in
California, especially southern California, God bless you. Not everyone can. If
you didn't know, it's official that California's median house is now nine hundred thousand
dollars nine hundred thousand dollars, just short of a million. If you want
to put this in some perspective, we always say, well, that's that's
high. Yeah, it's been high for a long time. But let me
give you some perspective. The median cost of a house in California was just
eight hundred thousand dollars. Two years ago, March of twenty twenty two,
the median cost was eight hundred thousand dollars. It's gone up one hundred thousand
dollars in two years. I know, simple math, but amazing math.
Nonetheless. But here's what's less often discussed. There's this correlation between cost of
houses and the cost of rent hire. The median cost of houses higher the
median rent, and vice versa. Weird, right, they go hand in
hand. Housing is expensive in California. I'm not saying that there is a
causal relationship. I'm not saying because of this then that, but I'm saying
that there's a correlation. They're related on some level. High housing costs,
high rental costs, and get this high homelessness. It's almost strange how they
go hand in hand. It's almost strange how they're related. The cost of
housing in California is and continues to be ridiculously high. We love capitalism.
I love capitalism, and I keep trying to remind you I love capitalism.
I don't say that I love capitalism ignorant of its faults and its shortcomings.
I'm saying I love capitalism, and I also acknowledge that it has a lot
of shortcomings. Or let me put it this way, there are consequences of
capitalism. You may say, well, but let the free market decide.
You may say, let businesses do what they want. Well, this is
a function of letting the free market decide. The free market has decided that
the median cost of houses in California is nine hundred thousand dollars. You can
say, let the free market decide. And gas station owners have set their
price levels much higher than around the country, higher than the gas tax difference.
That's capitalism. But let me just stay within the realm of housing.
Just for reference sake, the median cost of a house in California was only
two hundred thousand dollars back in nineteen ninety nine. We all remember nineteen ninety
nine, two hundred thousand dollars. The only time the median significantly dropped in
the past forty years, you got it, the Great Recession. So this
has been astronomical in the past quarter century, more than quadrupled, almost quintupled.
You think that's bad, here's some other bad news. And this is
almost counterintuitive. It doesn't make sense given what I just told you. According
to the US News and World Report, as San Francisco is the only California
city in the top twenty five of best places to live in the US.
Again, this is according to the US News and World Report. California,
the state where the median house costs nine hundred thousand dollars. Only San Francisco
is in the top twenty five of best places to live in the US according
to the US News and World Report. And you say San Francisco, yeah,
San Francisco. San Jose came in a number seventy. No other California
city was in the top one hundred. So if we take a step back,
we realized that only two cities, according to the US News and World
Report, are in the top one hundred. Two California cities are in the
top one hundred. Nowhere else. Nobody else is in the top one hundred
according to the US News and World Report, and their list was based on
crime rates, quality of education, air quality, and value. And this
is where I go to someone like Mark Ronner because I would love an outsiders
and I consider him an outsider because it wasn't born here, he wasn't raised
here, he didn't live here for most of his adult life. I would
love an outsider's perspective on why you may think that is where the housing and
the land is so very valuable, but the quality of living is not consistent
with that. Well, I'll tell you one reason that I just read last
night, which is that one out of every five homes are being bought up
by private equity firms. That'll drive up the cost. That goes back to
the whole capitalism thing. Well, that's how to control capitalism. That's not
even smart capitalism, that's just destructive capitalism. Yea, no no value judgment.
I'm saying capitalism is capitalism, and you can't necessarily control all the factors
of it. When you say capitalism, you got to take the good with
the bad. Well, no, you can control this, and there is
a suggestion that legislation be made to prohibit corporations like this from buying residential homes,
and that would definitely help get a handle on things. Hey, Mark,
we could control the price of rent, cost of rent, but we
voted down rent control twice. I mean, I hear you this. You're
talking about Okay, okay, California. But my point is your point is
well taken. Where there are things that we in the sense of voters,
could control, we in the sense of legislators and the legislature could control,
but we don't. We would rather have unfettered capitalism. And the only point
I'm making is this is what it looks like, this is what it feels
like. You your word unfettered is exactly right unfettered because here's Mark's aphorism of
the day. Capitalism without any regulations or controls eats itself and destroys things and
hurts people. Unfettered capitalism is what we've got that's driving people out of house
and home. And we've never had pure capitalism. And I make a distinction
between unfettered and pure capitalism. If there are still go ahead, Mark,
if you want that to go to Somalia, Okay, yes, because pure
capitalism does not exist in the real world in any way that is livable.
No, And if we want to have a deeper economic conversation, we would
have to admit that we live in a blended economy. There are services which
are provided and expect to be provided by the government, the state government and
our local governments. Is not what people think it is. We have a
blended economy. The only point I'm making this For all the things that we
may complain about California, talking about the high cost of living, part of
that is we brought that on ourselves. And part of it is, you
know, we're paying for the weather. We will always pay for the weather,
and we're paying for this land, which is finite in the sense that
they're not creating any more of it, and it's always going to be very
valuable. And as other technology companies may continue to come to California, you
know, the Silicon Beach did not grow in the way that originally was planned
to. But still there are some technology hotspots in San Jose area and Santa
Monica, which has somehow, to some degree driven the cost of of of
land and real estate. But you know, this is what it means to
live in California. And for all the people who want to say, well,
look at all the people leaving California, well, you know, you
got to take the good with the bad. Me and I always say this,
and I'll say it again, I don't care if everyone leaves. If
anything that makes my traffic that much better, my commute that much better,
let them go. I'm happy I moved here. I wish I had moved
here sooner than I did. I love it here. But you got to
remember, Mo, that everything's connected, especially in economics. And so we're
also getting all these reports right now showing that four plus decades of trickle down
economics didn't work, okay, and so that's connected to people not being able
to buy a home too. It's connected to the fact that when we were
kids, one person with one income could support a family, go on vacation,
set the kids to college. That's insane. Now there's no way you
could do that on one income. Now it's all connected. That's my point.
Beyond that, you've made another good point. People unfortunately today think of
the economy in one year or two year increments, when honestly, we can
look at the economy from legislative decisions on a state level in the federal level
going back a decade or so or more, which have consequences or impact on
what's happening today. But we don't have serious economic discussions. We just have
We talk about the unemployment rate, We talk about inflation of the moment,
and that's it, not any of the factors which might have caused those things,
which may have proceeded in administration or two. But you know they don't
want to hear that. Nope, look at the time, look at it.
It's Later with mo Kelly, can't buy AM six forty. We're live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And when we come back, we have not
one, but two sets of earthquake swarms which have hit California. What the
hell is going on with this state? And why is twala give me information
about earthquake swarms which did not hit five point zh He knows the rules and
he's in violation, but we'll still talk about it when we come back.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
In this hour of California Bad News has been brought to you by producer Tauala
Sharp. You can hear him as host of Soul col Saturday. The whole
damn hour. We start off with someone getting stabbed on the Metro and then
La County released bacteria warning for six beaches. I said, fet all of
them. And then California rank poorly in study of best places to live in
the US. Oh and by the way, California's meeting home price crosses nine
hundred thousand dollars. And if that weren't bad enough, we're going to end
the hour with some earthquake swarms because Tuala has that sixth sense of humor,
and this is an inside joke actually, which is going to be going to
bring it out. I say that I don't take earthquakes seriously unless they're a
five point zero. Tauala doesn't agree with me, and he wants to talk
about earthquakes which are three point nine, four point one, four point five,
and to get around that, he wants to use new math. I
say five point oh. He gives me a story about two dozen earthqua quakes
measuring two point five, as if you can add them together and then they
add up to like seven point five or something like that. No, these
are minor earthquakes measuring two point five on the Richter scale, and they happened
about two thousand of them. Happened just after midnight Saturday, with an epicenter
about one hundred and seventy five miles southeast of downtown, LA and one hundred
miles northeast of San Diego. Hello, Orange County, I'm quite sure you
enjoyed them all. The largest quake and this is the real point to while
I hope you're listening, the largest quake of that earthquakes swarm was a magnitude
three point nine class Did we already discuss that five point zero was the minimum
for discussion of earthquakes? Mo, what are you not understanding about a swarm,
a literal swarm of earthquakes descending on California. This is something out out
of biblical time, A swarm of earthquakes, swarm, two dozen minor earthquakes.
If anything from what I remember in geology, which is not a hell
of a lot, be clear. If anything, I was told that these
minor earthquakes help release tension on at least one or possibly multiple faults, depending
where they are, so we don't have to save up all this tension for
the big one in California would break off and fall into the ocean and submerge.
Maybe that would be the case if it was one here, one there,
but a literal swarm descending on California type of ominous being. Don't be
bringing my b phobia into this. Okay, you're trying to connect dot switch,
don't connect swarm. These are earthquakes. These are buzzing all across southern
California. I'm not Amy King. I don't do bees. Okay, she
does bees. I don't do bees. We're gonna Bees are not welcome around
here, not even the discussion of them. And if if you should try
to play a beast on effects, Stephan all reach through this radio of this
wall and knock you out. Do not play any beast on effects. An
earthquake of earthquakes don't swarm. No, it's just it's a cluster. Okay,
they're not swarm. Swarm connotes that they're alive, that they have consciousness,
that they're sentient in nature. They're none of that. We don't know
what the motive of these earthquakes was. You cannot assign any type of emotion
to these earthquakes. You don't know what they were into. Why don't you
talk to the earthquakes? Mark, look at what I'm doing here. I
need a voice of reason. I need a voice for reason, just someone
who can understand that these are earthquakes. Can there possibly be a hive of
earthquakes possible? About you too? Bleed? Yeah, makes perfect sense to
me. Ben't the slightest this, This makes perfect sense to you. I'll
tell you where I do agree with you. Move. Don't even wake me
up for an earthquake that's below a six. Okay? Did you have any
period of adjustment coming from the Pacific Northwest to California and earthquakes? Was there
any? Not at all? Not at all. The earthquakes don't bother me
the slightest. In fact, I covered a huge one when I worked in
Seattle, where all the facades fell off, the old buildings and Pioneer Square
and everything. That was far worse than anything I've seen since I've lived here.
What was that? A six? Something I don't recall, but I
mean it got people's attention. I'll tell you that it's probably more than a
five. To Wallach, it was probably more than a five. You know
what, maybe, but you still need to be wary. No, I
don't, you know, I don't What am I supposed to do about earthquakes
which are in the past. Am I supposed to call like JPL or the
USGS and say, hey, there was an earthquake, swarm. Oh,
you already know about it because you reported it. Thanks a lot, have
a nice day. What am I supposed to do? We are literally letting
every single individual listening to the sound of your voice, sound of my voice.
Now, even Mark Fouch over there on the board. We need to
let them know that we know about this warm Okay, they know, we
know everybody knows, and there's nothing we can do with it other than say,
there were twenty four our earthquakes that nobody felt, nobody and you can
go straight to hell, you two. Stephanf I am six forty. We're
live everywhere to the iHeartRadio app in different stevy k s i k OST HD
two Los Angeles, Range County lives everywhere on the iHeart Radio app.