Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six FORTYFI AM six forty. This is the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2: I'm o Kelly. Yeah, it just did kind of say that.
Speaker 2: I'm O Kelly and for Bill. On this fabulous Friday.
Speaker 2: We're getting closer and closer to the weekend. You probably
Speaker 2: know that's the Olympic March and the Olympics, Yes, are
Speaker 2: coming here to Los Angeles again in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2: I'm old enough to remember the Games of nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 2: but as fate would have it, I was actually visiting
Speaker 2: on vacation place called Clear Lake in northern California with
Speaker 2: friends and wasn't in Los Angeles for the Games in
Speaker 2: eighty four. God willing, I'll still be alive in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty eight and hope to be able to enjoy the
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Games. But it's very different circumstances, very different
Speaker 2: feeling of the Games in twenty twenty eight. Presumably America
Speaker 2: is very very different, and you can attribute some of
Speaker 2: that to President Trump and his policies. But I think
Speaker 2: we as people, how we relate as Americans to one another,
Speaker 2: how we relate as Americans to the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: It's just a very different time, and there are.
Speaker 2: Questions of how well or how prepared Los Angeles is
Speaker 2: as a city, how well we're going to be able
Speaker 2: to conduct these games. Those are real concerns. We know
Speaker 2: that Mayor Bass has said that it's supposed to be
Speaker 2: a car free Olympics, utilizing public transportation to get to
Speaker 2: all of the venues for all of the events. I
Speaker 2: don't know how feasible that is, but we know that
Speaker 2: is a goal of this mayor. And along those lines,
Speaker 2: there are other concerns about what will travel be like.
Speaker 2: Will it be easy, going back to the story about
Speaker 2: the German citizens, Will it be easy to come in
Speaker 2: and out of the country, not just for athletes, but
Speaker 2: also for tourists and people who want to see the
Speaker 2: games from neighboring countries or anywhere from around the world.
Speaker 2: Casey Wasserman recently has assured the IOC, the International Olympic.
Speaker 1: Committee, that visa issues.
Speaker 2: Won't plague the twenty twenty eight Olympics, and in an
Speaker 2: address to the IOC in Greece, Wasserman addressed these concerns
Speaker 2: over visas and intra requirements to the US for athletes
Speaker 2: and delegations hoping to take part in the Games. Wasserman
Speaker 2: is chairman of the Games Organizing Committee and assured, and
Speaker 2: I wanted to.
Speaker 1: Drill down on that word.
Speaker 2: Assured assured the one hundred and five active IOC members
Speaker 2: that quote, irrespective of politics, today, America will be open
Speaker 2: and accepting to all two hundred and nine countries for
Speaker 2: the Olympics. LA is the most diverse city in the
Speaker 2: history of humanity, and we will welcome the people from
Speaker 2: around the world and give them all a great time.
Speaker 1: Close quote.
Speaker 2: I understand how you want to give a positive spin
Speaker 2: on these issues. I understand why you want to say
Speaker 2: that LA will be the most diverse and welcoming city.
Speaker 2: But there's some things which are outside the control of
Speaker 2: Casey Wasserman. There's some things which are outside the control
Speaker 2: of basically anyone.
Speaker 1: We have some world issues going on.
Speaker 2: We have a relatively new president with a very very
Speaker 2: particular and specific outlook and viewpoint when it comes to
Speaker 2: people who are coming in the country and going out
Speaker 2: of the country. We know that the Olympics historically has
Speaker 2: been a place for protests, either during the Games or
Speaker 2: surrounding the Games. You have the world stage there are
Speaker 2: plenty of historical examples where people would use the Olympic
Speaker 2: Games to have their grievances heard, their messages seen, and
Speaker 2: somehow elevating them to a level that you can't get
Speaker 2: any other time of the year. And since the Olympics
Speaker 2: are every four years, the likelihood of there being some
Speaker 2: level of protest, be it what's going on in the
Speaker 2: Middle East, be it what's going on in Ukraine and Russia.
Speaker 2: Right now, we don't know where those these situations are
Speaker 2: going to be in two and a half years or so,
Speaker 2: but we can assume that there will be world issues
Speaker 2: which will be front and center in a general sense.
Speaker 2: And we know, well, if there's anything we know about
Speaker 2: Donald Trump the man and President Trump the politician, it's
Speaker 2: this he will always change his mind as circumstances dictate.
Speaker 2: We can point to tariffs and see his past history
Speaker 2: on that. He may have one stance on Tuesday and
Speaker 2: a different stance on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to those people.
Speaker 2: Who are coming into the and those who may be
Speaker 2: allowed to stay in the country, those who may be
Speaker 2: protesting while in the country, or may take a stance
Speaker 2: which is opposite that of the administration. Right now, or
Speaker 2: may take a stance which is not necessarily as popular
Speaker 2: with the administration. You can't imagine a scenario where Donald
Speaker 2: Trump would possibly push back against that. And we may
Speaker 2: have some people, we may have some delegations, we may
Speaker 2: have some athletes pushed out of the country. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: say deported, but maybe refused visa access into the country.
Speaker 2: And that's something which is very real, very very real.
Speaker 2: We should not somehow limit or somehow believe that Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: the politician, the person, and also the president would be
Speaker 2: any different in two and a half years than he
Speaker 2: is right now. Wasserman put another way, cannot make this
Speaker 2: assurance in the way that mayor Ban cannot promise to
Speaker 2: us that we're going to have a car free Olympics.
Speaker 2: It's more aspirational than anything. Yes, we would like to
Speaker 2: believe that there will be no issues with visas or
Speaker 2: entry requirements into the US for athletes and delegations taking
Speaker 2: part in the twenty twenty eight Olympics. And yes, if
Speaker 2: you're speaking to the rest of the world, if you're
Speaker 2: speaking to the International Olympic Committee, there's only one answer
Speaker 2: you can give. The only thing you can say is, hey,
Speaker 2: it's going to be all good. We're not going to
Speaker 2: have any problems whatsoever. Yes, we know that President Trump
Speaker 2: has been a little bit sensitive, my word, regarding protests.
Speaker 2: He's been very strict as it relates to visas and
Speaker 2: people who may overstay their visas or may make public
Speaker 2: comments in opposition to the Trump administration. Yes, we know
Speaker 2: that President Trump has been very sensitive to those issues.
Speaker 1: But don't worry about it. Everything's going to be just fine.
Speaker 2: No, Casey Wasson cannot, in could faith make that argument
Speaker 2: because nobody can predict what President Trump is going to do.
Speaker 2: I don't know if President Trump can predict what President
Speaker 2: Trump is going to do. This is something we're going
Speaker 2: to have to watch day by day, week by week,
Speaker 2: month by month.
Speaker 1: We have a year and a half or.
Speaker 2: Two years before we'll have a better sense of what
Speaker 2: the climate is going to be with people coming in
Speaker 2: and staying in the United States. We don't know what
Speaker 2: is going to happen in the Middle East. It could
Speaker 2: be a completely different scenario. It could have evolved into
Speaker 2: something much more tragic, much more widespread. We don't know
Speaker 2: if Iran is going to somehow involve themselves. We don't
Speaker 2: know what Israel is going to do with respect to Hamas.
Speaker 2: We don't know if that ceasefire will continue where or
Speaker 2: whether it will be resolved.
Speaker 1: The world will have a say.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump, the President, will have a say, and hopefully
Speaker 2: we'll be at a place where there is more peace
Speaker 2: and there'll be more certainty as far as people entering
Speaker 2: the United States. But we don't know that now, and
Speaker 2: we can't make any promises, especially the ones that we
Speaker 2: cannot keep. Yes, I love La, and I'm not blind
Speaker 2: to all of its problems, blind to all of its warts,
Speaker 2: blind to all the things which need to be improved.
Speaker 2: I love La, but I'm not ignorant of the issues
Speaker 2: in and around La. Because it's home, Home will always
Speaker 2: be home. I was born in La, raised in La.
Speaker 2: I've lived ninety eight percent of my life in LA,
Speaker 2: with exception of the time I was in college in Washington, DC.
Speaker 2: So La is something which is near and dear to
Speaker 2: my heart. But there are some things, even after all
Speaker 2: this time that I've spent here, I don't understand about La.
Speaker 2: And this is one of the things that I think
Speaker 2: people get wrong. Some people, not you in your car,
Speaker 2: not you listening on iHeartRadio, You know better. But some
Speaker 2: people I'm talking about other people. Some people believe that
Speaker 2: radio hosts are always trying to be know it all.
Speaker 2: They know everything about every subject, they opine about all
Speaker 2: things both big and small. They know everything, or at
Speaker 2: least they present themselves as knowing everything. Now, I will
Speaker 2: be the first person to tell you I don't know everything.
Speaker 2: I try to offer as an informed opinion as possible
Speaker 2: about a lot of subjects, but there's some things that
Speaker 2: I don't know, and there's some things I just don't understand.
Speaker 2: And when I tell you that LA has a parking
Speaker 2: enforcement problem, a huge one. When it comes down to
Speaker 2: the amount of money that it is spending and the
Speaker 2: amount of money that it is bringing in, which is
Speaker 2: well short of the money that it's spending, I'm here
Speaker 2: to tell you I don't understand it. I know a
Speaker 2: little bit about math, in sort of a fifth grader
Speaker 2: sort of way, addition, subtraction of maybe some multiplication and division,
Speaker 2: the simple stuff. But I don't understand this. And according
Speaker 2: to a recent report from independent news organization Crosstown, LA,
Speaker 2: the city as a LA City is fighting this losing
Speaker 2: war over parking and parking enforcement data has been analyzed,
Speaker 2: and it shows that LA is spending tens of millions
Speaker 2: of dollars more on parking enforcement than it is receiving
Speaker 2: from parking tickets. I had no idea that parking enforcement
Speaker 2: had such a high overhead. In the fiscal year that
Speaker 2: just ended in June of twenty twenty four, LA gave
Speaker 2: out two million parking tickets.
Speaker 1: That much.
Speaker 2: I believe the city collected about one hundred and ten
Speaker 2: million dollars in parking fines.
Speaker 1: I damn sure believe that. But also LA was spending.
Speaker 2: Eighty eight million on parking enforcement expenses like salaries and equipment,
Speaker 2: and when you add in the cost of pensions and
Speaker 2: other obligations and liabilities, that figure jumped to more than
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy six million.
Speaker 1: So let's quickly review.
Speaker 2: The city collected about one hundred and ten million in
Speaker 2: parking fines, but the city was spending about one hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy six million dollars during that same time. That
Speaker 2: is a sixty five million dollars shortfall. How do you
Speaker 2: come out sixty five million dollars short in parking enforcement?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't have a reasonable answer for you. I can
Speaker 2: tell you about some of the contributing factors. I can
Speaker 2: say confidently and people would understand if I told you
Speaker 2: the COVID nineteen pandemic in a general sense made bad
Speaker 2: matters worse because we weren't driving during the pandemic, or fewer.
Speaker 1: People are actually going to work.
Speaker 2: So revenue in the fiscal year that ended in June
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one was down thirty seven percent from the
Speaker 2: prior year. But that's just the pandemic that was a
Speaker 2: good four years ago. But the figures I just told
Speaker 2: you about was for fiscal year twenty twenty four. I
Speaker 2: don't get it. Here's something else to consider post pandemic.
Speaker 2: Fewer people are commuting, Okay, that makes sense. Fewer people
Speaker 2: are filling city centers, and fewer cars are on their
Speaker 2: road overstaying their parking location or parking where they should.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense on some level, But.
Speaker 2: That only speaks to a decrease in parking revenue. I
Speaker 2: don't understand what parking enforcement is doing, which necessitates the
Speaker 2: exorbitant costs of salaries and also equipment. I'm thinking about
Speaker 2: that subcompact car that parking enforcement people will drive around
Speaker 2: the city.
Speaker 1: You know what they are.
Speaker 2: You're looking out for them when you're parking illegally, or
Speaker 2: you're parking you haven't fed the meter. You know, you're
Speaker 2: looking for that car. I look at that, and I
Speaker 2: look at the person getting out of the car, and
Speaker 2: I got it. Okay, that is a tangible expense that
Speaker 2: you and I can understand. We see the car, we
Speaker 2: see the person, we see the person. We know there
Speaker 2: is an associated salary. That makes sense. Okay, Maybe that
Speaker 2: little thing they're holding in their hand which they're using
Speaker 2: to write the ticket, that makes sense. But I can't
Speaker 2: think of anything else. Clearly there is something else. But
Speaker 2: I can't think of anything else which actually costs millions
Speaker 2: and millions of dollars. They said the pensions, All right,
Speaker 2: then what else are they using? What else are they needing?
Speaker 2: What else are they spending millions and millions of dollars on?
Speaker 2: You would think you would think that parking enforcement would
Speaker 2: be a cash cow for the city, not a loss leader.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't think that parking enforcement alone would lead to
Speaker 2: sixty five million dollars in a shortfall. You would be
Speaker 2: able to then argue that, well, if we stopped enforcement
Speaker 2: of parking, we would at least cut out some of
Speaker 2: the loss that were incurring every single year. Just stop
Speaker 2: trying to enforce parking. We know about they have this
Speaker 2: new system, this AI technology which will detect your car
Speaker 2: if it's in a bus lane.
Speaker 1: Is that some of the expense.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but you would think that anything which
Speaker 2: is costing you sixty five million dollars more than what
Speaker 2: you're bringing in probably needs to be amended on the budget.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't remember the last time I
Speaker 1: received a parking ticket.
Speaker 2: I am fortunate enough to have a garage to park
Speaker 2: my car in and a garage at which to park
Speaker 2: my car at work, and I understand not everyone has
Speaker 2: that luxury. And if you've driven through Hollywood and tried
Speaker 2: to park in Hollywood at night, there's a good chance,
Speaker 2: and that's considered a part of the city of LA
Speaker 2: there's a good chance that you may get a parking
Speaker 2: ticket and or get your car Toad. I've only been
Speaker 2: Toad once. Emmi King, have you ever been Toad? And
Speaker 2: I know I ask you this only because you are
Speaker 2: you're not an La native, so you may not have
Speaker 2: known the racket which is LA parking.
Speaker 1: Over the previous decades.
Speaker 2: I have not been told, but every time I go
Speaker 2: to Pasadena, I get a parking ticket.
Speaker 1: Okay, Pasadena, all right, you're really good about nailing you
Speaker 1: conor Have you.
Speaker 2: Ever had a problem with parking and parking tickets in
Speaker 2: and around Los Angeles?
Speaker 1: Parking, yes, parking tickets no.
Speaker 2: I don't see how given the amount of tickets that
Speaker 2: they're willing to give out that we as the City
Speaker 2: of Los Angeles would be sixty five million dollars short,
Speaker 2: how does it get to that point? Where is that
Speaker 2: money being spent? And I'm not one of those people
Speaker 2: look waste, fraud and abuse. I just have a genuine question,
Speaker 2: because I have a genuine lack of understanding. You would
Speaker 2: think a reasonable person. I would like to think I'm reasonable,
Speaker 2: but a reasonable person would question how parking enforcement costs
Speaker 2: so damn much, given that the tickets usually are so oppressive.
Speaker 2: It's not like we're talking about a twenty five or
Speaker 2: thirty dollars ticket. You can easily see an eighty five
Speaker 2: dollars ticket. And that's assuming you're paying it on time.
Speaker 2: And if you're like me back in the day, I
Speaker 2: never paid a parking ticket on time. It was just
Speaker 2: never a priority, and then the penalties and fees rack up,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, it's double that amount. How
Speaker 2: is it we're losing money on parking enforcement? I would
Speaker 2: love someone to tell me, but right now all we
Speaker 2: know is we are losing money and there's no reasonable
Speaker 2: explanation for it. And then when you look at the
Speaker 2: bigger picture, how the city has a billion dollars shortfall.
Speaker 2: Don't think I'd forgotten about that, and you realize that
Speaker 2: something fundamentally is a miss in how the city of
Speaker 2: Los Angeles is being run. This is just one example
Speaker 2: of clearly many examples of LA not being able to
Speaker 2: do the right thing.
Speaker 1: It's a Bill Handle show.
Speaker 2: I'm o Kelly and for Bill, We're live everywhere on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. But there are Democratic town halls going
Speaker 2: on all around the country. You know that the Democrats
Speaker 2: have had a bad goal of it. As of late,
Speaker 2: they've received the lowest approval ratings, and I would say
Speaker 2: in the past thirty forty years at least, what is
Speaker 2: going on inside the party? They've been mad at Chuck
Speaker 2: Schumer for going along with Republicans for the Continuing Resolution,
Speaker 2: What the hell is going on? And joining us right now.
Speaker 2: To help us sort it out, is Alicia Mieva's News
Speaker 2: Nation reporter, Alicia, what is going on?
Speaker 3: I think what we're seeing right now is the Democratic
Speaker 3: Party trying to seize the moment with these town halls,
Speaker 3: trying to come up with a new identity in this
Speaker 3: new age, something they have been criticized for as of late,
Speaker 3: and this is clearly their strategy to make that happen
Speaker 3: these people's town halls or fight for all our fight
Speaker 3: against all our gurchy tour. That is something that is
Speaker 3: happening now with the townholes coast to coast, I mean
Speaker 3: everywhere from Pennsylvania to Arizona, and they're mostly happening in
Speaker 3: Republican strongholds of the DNC, saying they pick these areas
Speaker 3: because they say vulnerable GOP house members are and this
Speaker 3: is a quote, running scared from their constituents. You know,
Speaker 3: the party at this point believe that it has an
Speaker 3: opportunity to reach conservative voters who are frustrated in this
Speaker 3: moment on how the Trump administration is carrying out its agenda,
Speaker 3: a certain policies that are hitting their wallets when they
Speaker 3: voted for him to do the opposite, you know, there
Speaker 3: are points of things like Elon Musk's chains off of bureaucracy.
Speaker 3: We won't forget that moment at seapac a last month,
Speaker 3: and really everything that he's done with Doge to slash
Speaker 3: government waste but at the same time layoff tens of
Speaker 3: thousands of people. So you're seeing Dems like Tim Wall's
Speaker 3: AOC Bernie Sanders, hoping that their message at these town
Speaker 3: hall you know, turns Republican voters that anger they're having
Speaker 3: right now potentially into action aka votes coming to the
Speaker 3: Dems come this next election cycle, which is about a
Speaker 3: year and a half away from now, but certainly something
Speaker 3: on the minds of Democrats right now.
Speaker 2: I think objectively speaking, we can agree that there's a
Speaker 2: problem not only with the Democrats in elections vis a
Speaker 2: v with against Republicans, but also internally in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: What is it with the democratics in Democrats internally in
Speaker 2: which they are unable to find a cohesive strategy in
Speaker 2: which to fight Republicans.
Speaker 1: It seems Yeah, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I think you've been up a great point that
Speaker 3: actually reflected in these town halls, right you know, these
Speaker 3: hot town halls haven't been just rallies for Democrats. They've
Speaker 3: actually been Democratic voters saying the exact same thing, saying
Speaker 3: the old guard, if you will, clearly hasn't worked, right.
Speaker 3: It's part of the reason why Trump is now in
Speaker 3: office and they lost the election, you know, last year,
Speaker 3: and so one of the things again we're hearing in
Speaker 3: these town halls is people asking for them to find
Speaker 3: a new identity. That may be AOC, that may be
Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders, or that may be someone completely new and different.
Speaker 3: You know, we're even hearing in these town halls. You know,
Speaker 3: Democrats are having to deal with calls for Senator Schumer
Speaker 3: to kind of step down to no longer be the
Speaker 3: leader of the party, especially after he, you know, backed
Speaker 3: Trump's government funding bill to a shutdown. They feel like
Speaker 3: they need a party that's willing to fight with the Republicans,
Speaker 3: who were clearly up to the fight, right. They have
Speaker 3: kind of had this revolution, if you will, over the
Speaker 3: last two months sixty days that Trump has been in office,
Speaker 3: and they're wanting the Democrats to match that. It will
Speaker 3: yet to be seen if that's actually what ends up
Speaker 3: happening here. But again these town halls are Democrats saying
Speaker 3: they're up for the challenge and people saying you need
Speaker 3: to be because we're going to vote based on that.
Speaker 3: If you actually are willing to stand up to the
Speaker 3: Republican Party.
Speaker 2: Before I let you go, I have a philosophical question
Speaker 2: and hopefully you can help me out with it. I
Speaker 2: remember after Mitt Romney lost against Barack Obama in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: that the Republican Party was lost in the wilderness, not
Speaker 2: unlike what the Democrats are right now.
Speaker 1: A lot can happen in two years and four years.
Speaker 2: Has there been any thought to, hey, Democrats, just stop panicking.
Speaker 2: We can't lose or win any elections until twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Let's be sure that we take our time and get
Speaker 2: the right strategy, the right message, and we can be
Speaker 2: back on top again.
Speaker 3: You know, I think from my vantage point, unfortunately that's
Speaker 3: not the case. I think even when you point to
Speaker 3: Mitt Romney, you point to Barack Obama, I think Republicans
Speaker 3: did well in play the long game. And that's something
Speaker 3: that Democrats are struggling with because while they can't win
Speaker 3: you know, the White House until you know, mid terms,
Speaker 3: at least until twenty twenty six, and certainly the White House,
Speaker 3: you know two years after that they're under this immense
Speaker 3: amount of pressure to do something. Now, that's part of
Speaker 3: what we're hearing at the town hall. So on one hand,
Speaker 3: you want them to come up with a long vision,
Speaker 3: or they certainly want to come with a long vision,
Speaker 3: but they have to have some short term success, whether
Speaker 3: it be just ideologically, and I think that's what these
Speaker 3: town halls are. They're, you know, an image of what
Speaker 3: could come in twenty twenty six, what could come in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty eight. But the long game, they have not
Speaker 3: telegraphed any of that, and from my vantage point, you know,
Speaker 3: I haven't seen it. So that's something that obviously is
Speaker 3: concerning for Democratic voters.
Speaker 2: Alisa and Naevia's News Nation reporter. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for checking in with us.
Speaker 1: Of course, you've been listening to the Bill Handles Show.
Speaker 2: Catch my show one day through Friday, six am to
Speaker 2: nine am, and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio
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