00:00:01
Speaker 1: Will the city council might only give you sixty seconds to where your grievance is.
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Speaker 2: Oh hi, I'd like to go to the first caller on the phone.
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Speaker 1: Well, if you're lucky, now we're giving you a full sixty minutes. It's a KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang in our long recap of the day's top local stories on your drive home, And unlike the City Council, we're the perfect vehicle to actually get your voice heard. The KADC News Blitz with Randy Wayne starts.
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Speaker 3: No, no, it is the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. This is your daily rundown of everything you need to know that is going on in southern California as well as the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and the Central Valley.
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Speaker 2: I compile a.
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Speaker 3: List of all the stories up and down the state of California that I think are relevant, that I think are worth your time, stories you may have missed, and you can check it out every single day the News Blitz the home edition at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. With that, let's get into today's news blitz as we start with an update from our friends over at NBCLA, specifically the incredible reporting that Eric Leonard has been doing on the ITEAM when it comes to another Gavin Newsom proclamation that meant nothing, another Gavin Newsom proclamation that went nowhere. In the wake of the devastating fires in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon, Gavin Newsom held a press conference in Pasadena saying we're gonna get billions of dollars two billion dollars for the fire victims. Well thanks to the incredible reporting at NBCLA and Eric Leonard. A year and a half later, the vast majority of that two billion dollars has not been spent, and what was spent sometimes was completely irrelevant. Some of them went to reimburse fire agencies for fighting the fires, but some of it went to reimburse the CHP when it came to them using overtime hours during the ice protests, which the last time I checked, had nothing to do with the fires that happened in January of twenty twenty five. So this story gets out there and immediately locals are like, wait a second, there's money out there that's supposed to be for us. First off, why is it so complicated in twenty twenty six. I mean, I know why it is, but let's just talk about how it is now so easy to send anybody money. And the State of California already does this. If you file your taxes in the state of California, they probably have your bank account ready to go to send you a direct posit for that refund.
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Speaker 2: If you're getting a refund.
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Speaker 3: On top of that, you've got Venmo, you've got PayPal, you've got zell. It's never been easier to directly send people money. But whenever the state of California says we're going to start a program to help out the victims, first off, the money never actually goes to the victims directly, even though that would be great. Take a billion dollars divide amongst the twenty or thirty thousand people that lost homes and lost their livelihoods.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: That could be a big chunk.
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Speaker 3: But the fact that the money's just not doing anything has caused a lot of local leaders, including Tracy Park and the Palisades and Catherine Barger in the Altadena area because that's unincorporated La County, to start asking some questions. It's so funny and it's just so telling of how California works that of course we needed a local news report to shine a light on this, to get our electeds to start kicking and screaming and demanding, wait, why can't we use some of that money for some of the stuff we need, like the desperately needed infrastructure upgrades in the Palisades and Altadena, fixing streets, fixing roads, fixing utility lines, what have you. There's money sitting an account that has already been allocated to help out these people, and it wasn't doing anything, and the money was actually going to expire at some point. So great, great job on behalf of NBCLA and Eric Leonard of getting the word out about that story. We always do our part here when I see something like that. It's my job to make sure that everyone sees that that those stories have legs, because you know, sometimes for our friends in TV journalism, they work their butt off on a story, it airs on the TV, it goes up on YouTube, and then if it doesn't catch fire, then maybe it just goes away. And that's kind of one of the mission statements that I have had since we've been doing this show for the last few years, and since I've been doing the John Phillips Show for the past eight years, is to really highlight these stories. You know, I don't usually talk about them until the day after they air, just based on when I see them on YouTube, and it's just giving another life and making sure, hey, you may not have seen this, but this is incredibly important, and I'm very glad to see that. At least now you've got Tracy Park and you've got Catherine Barger saying, wait a second, we should be getting that money. Should the money be going directly to the victims.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: Oh?
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Completely. The same thing with the fire aid money. Now that wasn't a government program, that was through a charity, but still so much of that money went to nonprofits that had nothing to do with helping out the victims of the fire. As it has never gotten easier to directly give people money. The hardest thing for the state of California is just to directly give people money. And there's a whole lot of reasons for that, including all the grift that goes on. But it's so disingenuous for Gavin Newsom to say, Okay, here's two billion dollars for the victims and the vast majority of the money went to just pay itself back for reimbursements for other agencies that were on overtime, whether it be LAFD, LA County, fd CAL fire, it doesn't matter. Like that doesn't mean anything. And this is why we focused our very first Accountability podcast on straight up that issue. Gavin Newsom as he leaves the governor's office, as he plans this presidential run, he has to deal with the fact that he has so many hollow promises, so little follow through and honestly, in the last eight years, whether you support his politics or not, he has failed to deliver on so many things that he said were important. That he said We're a game changer. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, you can watch it. Go to YouTube dot com slash at Accountability podcast and if you cannot find it, if you're having trouble spelling accountability, just email me at Randy Wangradio at gmail dot com and I'll send it to you and you'll have it. You'll be subscribed and you'll be all ready for when the next story, the next Accountability podcast gets posted on Wednesday. Now, let's stick around with the Eton fire where you still you have situations where Nathan Hakman last week talked about how he is cracking down in the Palisades on crooked contractors, on licensed contractors. We'll NBC four talk to a family where they got an offer for someone to do some repair work on their house that was damaged in the fire. Turns out they weren't licensed, and turns out well, they were about as good as pairing a house as I would be. And what's the recourse if you fall victim to one of these crooked contractors. It's good to see that the district attorney is following through on this and going for felony charges, because it's just there's just an added layer of disgust into how many different groups try to see a tragedy and find ways to profit off of it from the just worst ways possible. Now onto another disaster, the boil fire, I'll mean over the again and this is a wild one. So last week Karen Bess tours the devastation with NBC four and Karen Bess says, you know what, I'm signing an executive order in forty five days, We're going to make sure that this disgusting, rotted food that's attracting rats, that is staying looking up the whole neighborhood. Who knows what it's doing to the environment, that we get it out of there. And so Saturday morning, the crews were ready, the trucks were ready to go to start moving all of this stuff out, and then at the last second they were shut down. This is so complicated and so bizarre as to who's actually in charge here, because you have the company who all the food belongs to the cold storage facility. They don't own the building. The building's owned by somebody else, and they leased the building to the cold storage facility, but they also leased the rooftop to the solar panel farm. And it's the solar panel farm that caught fire when they were trying to reactivate some solar panels that they deactivated a few years ago, because oh, they caught fire. So apparently the people who operate the solar farm called the people who are operate the warehouse and say, we can't have you touch anything in there because we're still investigating as to how this fire started. Maybe they need to preserve everything as it is for insurance purposes, I don't know, but like, at what point because This isn't a government order. This is just another company telling another company, hey, don't touch this stuff. Ultimately, it doesn't look like anytime soon that you are going to see an expedited cleanup. And if you live in that area, I feel for you. And you know, a lot of questions are being asked, is why would you stay somewhere like that? And you're looking at one of these neighborhoods where the majority of the apartments are on rent stabilization ordnance rent control And it's not like you can just leave and go move somewhere else, because somewhere else might be double, maybe triple the cost of rent that you're used to. It's why this whole system of rent stabilized ordinances for just specific buildings that kind of freezes the rental market because once you get one of those units, you never give up. But that's also one of the problems. You know, that doesn't count in the regular market rate. So now if somebody has to leave that because their neighborhood is turned into a disaster, there really isn't going to be anything that's comparable. It is a really, really tough situation. Now, I always notice, hey, there's a story involving my hometown, the Santa Clarita Valley, and this is not a very good one. Censtomers of an auto body repair shop, a Collinton repair shop, reached out to Fox eleven to allege all kinds of unethical behavior by the owner of this repair shop over billing, billing for work that was never done. And apparently it's happened so many times. The owner himself is saying, no, no, no, these people just didn't understand what I was charging for. But it is something that does happen. I have been in a few car accidents in the last how long have I been driving? Since I was sixteen, so I have been driving for twenty five years almost. That should scare everybody. But you know, it's one thing if you have triple A and it's like the best forty bucks you'll spend ever, whether it's you know, having them get a toe out if you ran out of gas to actually fill up your gas, if you've got an EV they get a service, they'll bring you a battery that'll like charge you up for twenty minutes, what have you. But when you get into an accident, you know that the triple A driver is going to take you to a Triple A approved repair shop and they're not going to try to screw with you. But there have been incidences where that did not happen. Specifically, anytime you get into an accident and somebody begs and pleads with you to not go through insurance and to just go to their guy, and their guy will take care of you, that never ends up. Well, gosh, this must have been twenty twenty one, my wife, No, no, it was twenty nineteen, is before the pandemic. My wife and I were on the five Freeway driving to Irvine at whatever it was called then the Irvine Meadows whatever, the big outdoor venue that doesn't exist anymore, but they're rebuilding it. We were gonna go see Zach Brown Band and we are in stop and go bumper to bumper traffic on the one oh one freeway and we got rear ended, and the person begged and pleaded with us. And by the way we got rear ended, it's not like anyone was going very fast, but we had to like get out in the middle of the traffic jam exchange information.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: I was so frazzled.
00:13:55
Speaker 3: I think I took a picture of the wrong side of her license of her driver's license, but regardless, she begged and pleaded said, let me go to let me have it, take you to my guy. Let's not go through insurance, and we do that. I mean, my wife does this. This is her situation, and the person who's repair shop this is that's connected to her definitely wasn't on the up and up because we get the bumper fix and all of a sudden, the entire electrical system for my wife's car dies.
00:14:28
Speaker 2: And we cannot get it repaired.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: She finally takes it to Lexus and like, I don't know what happened here, but your old system is fried. She ended up selling the car and getting a different Lexus and it worked out fine. But yeah, be very very careful as to who you take your car to to be repaired. And one of the best defenses. I'm a big fan of it. I've had it for a very long time. At least you know when you're getting towed by Triple A, they're going to take you to somebody that you can trust. Always worked out for me. Maybe it hasn't worked out for some people, but it has always worked out for me. Karen Bass celebrated a small but important milestone. Since she launched a program to make sure we're housing veterans, she has housed over one thousand of them. And that's great and we should always be celebrating progress, especially when it comes to our veterans. That is so far too little, so far too late. Karen Bass promised that street homelessness would be over at the end of her first term.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: It's the end of her first term. It is not over.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: It is slightly down by the numbers she puts out. But if you live here, if you see it, if you feel it, if you smell it, it certainly doesn't look like it is down by any number. That being said, the failure to get the most basic shelter for our veterans is a failure of local, state, and federal government. And all you have to look to for all the failures of every level of government is the Westwood Campus. Is the VA in West la That land one hundred years ago was set aside to be used to build housing for our soldiers, for our disabled veterans.
00:16:30
Speaker 2: What have you?
00:16:31
Speaker 3: People coming back from World War One? World War II?
00:16:34
Speaker 2: What have you?
00:16:37
Speaker 3: And instead of housing being built for veterans on that land, what did the VA do they leased it out to a school to have their own baseball diamond. They leased it out to a different school for this. I think part of it was leased out to UCLA, and I think a judge has finally said that we're making all kinds of changes for that, and that is something that overwhelmingly needs to be done. At the very least, the most important thing that we should all be on the same page about is making sure all of our veterans are in some kind of shelter. And since we already have land that is set aside for them, maybe.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: We should use it.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. If you haven't had a chance yet, you have got to check out the live stream that we are now doing for the John Phillips Show every single day from noon to three. You can get it on YouTube. That's I think my favorite way to do it. Go to YouTube dot com, slash at Randy Wang Radio hit subscribe. But between noon and three the live feed is right there. You can watch the entire show, react to the videos when we react to the videos, and there's a chat room there you can comment. Some of the comments will make the screen. We're having so much fun with it. And I've also I spent a good part of the weekend retraining myself how to use Adobe Photoshop. And Adobe Photoshop in twenty twenty six is very different than Adobe Photoshop when I used to use it in two thousand and six. Now I just put a picture of John and I into there, and I say, hey, make us wear a funny hat, or make us wear a gas mask, and it just does it. So I'm putting together all kinds of silly graphics that you'll see during the commercial breaks, and we're just having a heck of a lot of fun. So YouTube dot com slash at Randy Wang Radio.
00:18:42
Speaker 2: While you're on.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: YouTube, make sure you subscribe to the Accountability podcast that's at YouTube dot com slash at Accountability Podcast.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: That is a weekly show that John and I are doing.
00:18:53
Speaker 3: It's exclusive content stuff that we could not get to on the regular radio show, but we wanted to make sure we do every single week. I have like dozens of stories that I plan for that we never got to, So we're gonna get to a whole bunch of fun stuff on there. And it's a podcast, which means not covered by the FCC, which means Johnny can work a little blue, So check that out as well. And if you'd like to follow me on the socials, you want to message me on x or Instagram, it's at Randy Wang Radio. Or if you want to be super old school and you want to email me, you can do so at Randywangradio at gmail dot com. I got a very nice note this morning from AJ. Thank you, Randy. I'm really enjoying the California Report that you put out during the week. I like that to get a preview of what you're going to discuss during the show, and I like that it covers the important things happening all over the state.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: That really makes my day.
00:19:52
Speaker 3: I you know, sometimes when you do this for a living, and it's different now with the live video streaming, but for a long time, it's just like you feel like you're talking to yourself in a wall. And I put out this thing every single day. I'm like, do people really read it? Are they enjoying it?
00:20:06
Speaker 2: Well?
00:20:07
Speaker 3: So far, I've got two hundred and forty four email subscribers and I'm increasing it every single day, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thank you so much for reading it. It is just a way for me to organize my show prep. But I figure, why am I keeping that to myself? I should share with you all of the stories that I found out today.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: We've got a lot more of those stories coming up.
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Speaker 3: Next, it's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. Now back to today's news Blitz, which you can check out at Randywang Radio dot substack dot com. The World Cup has attracted all kinds of just the best attention. There has been so many hilarious stories of the culture shock from people in other countries witnessing what we do in this country. One of my favorite videos is of the US talking about how obsessed he is with Popeye's Chicken and if they ever brought Popeye's Chicken to Australia, they'd be doing all right well. One of the other aspects of the culture shock that we are seeing in the World Cup happens to be when it comes to people from other countries, whether it be Europe, whether it be Japan, South America, seeing how whether you are buying a drink at a bar, whether you're ordering food at a restaurant, you're getting a coffee, you're going to the ups store. Everybody is asking for a tip for everything. Every time you tap your card or you tap your phone, it's asking you for a tip. And a lot of people are like, wait, what is going on here? And it turns out we're the not normal ones here. And I got to say, you know, of course, born in raised in this country, born and raised in this state, in this city, all I know is this tipping culture. And I'm someone that worked in the restaurant industry for many years before I got into radio.
00:22:14
Speaker 2: In fact, it was funny.
00:22:17
Speaker 3: I remember when I was a supervisor at the Mooseburger Lodge at six Flags Magic Mountain. I was the boss making the big box of eight dollars an hour, and one day I had to fill in for the servers because we were short as server and I was always picking up whatever needed to be done. If someone needed to wash dishes, I'll do that. Someone needs to run in the kitchen, I used to be the kitchen lead. I can do that. But one day I took off my blue supervisor uniform and put on the khaki Musburger Lodge shirt and I walked up and down is the first time I ever really weighted tables, and you know what, I was shocked by that. I came home with one hundred dollars cash. And this is in two thousand and three, two thousand and four. And I remember at that very moment, even though I was the supervisor, I was the one in charge of everybody, I was like, wait a second, this is more money than I usually make in a whole day, and this is just on the tips. And I get it right now because this is way before, like credit cards were a huge deal, so most everyone paid you in cash. And I was like, wait, do I really want to continue being a manager or do I want to be a waiter. A couple of years later, I ended up working as a waiter at TGI Fridays and I loved that job. And I did very well on my tips because I had a trick of I would memorize people's order, I wouldn't write it down, and I always got it right. Risky game, but it always paid off. But more importantly than that, I made sure the waters were full and the sodas were refilled. You want to get a good tip, you do that. But that's kind of the thing here. Service is so dependent on well, you know that you're going to get a financial benefit from it, and it is how you can work these very low wage jobs. In some states they still do sub minimum wage where you're actually paid against your tips and so your actual minimum wage is below the minimum wage, which sounds like a nightmare to begin with, but that's kind of how the culture is here. And it wasn't until I went to Europe at the end of last year that I had ever seen it done any differently, because even if you go to, you know, resorts in a different country, and I have been to Costa Rica and I'm pretty sure there was tipping when we were at the resorts there at the four seasons. I've been to Puerto Rico, but that's really the same country. But when I fir went to Europe and the first place that we stopped at in Europe was in Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, which if you've never been to Dublin, you should go. It is so much fun. But the first thing that we noticed that was like, wow, this is so different is you know, got a great recommendation of a hold up a bunch of different pubs to go get a guinness. We even did this beautiful music tour where a local told us about the history of trad traditional Irish music. As we got guinness at all these great locals bars, and the thing that I noticed was how quickly all the tables were turning, Like you don't just grab your barstool and sit there for a really long time and pet the bottle. No no, no, no no. You order your guinness, you tap to pay with your phone. Everyone uses Apple Pay in Dublin, and there is no tipping when you buy a guinness and getting guinness poured from the professionals, you do not tip. Now the occasional super touristy place there might be a line for people to tip if they want to, but it's not expected. So if you go to the Temple bar, maybe people will tip because they don't know better. But typically the culture there is the people who are working at the pubs are making a living wage, so they don't need your tips. They're making a decent living doing what they do best, pouring the best guinness.
00:26:35
Speaker 2: You have ever had. And by the way, if you've ever had guinness and you.
00:26:37
Speaker 3: Don't like it, it's because you did not have it in Ireland. And I believe this for so many European beers. I used to think Heineken was disgusting until I had it in Amsterdam and I'm like, oh, it just doesn't travel well. You get it at the source, it's really great. Well, that was the thing that I noticed, and this was true. If you went to a sit down restaurant again, it was not expected, but you could tip maybe ten percent, but for the most part you did not see this tipping everywhere, tipping for everything.
00:27:12
Speaker 1: You know.
00:27:13
Speaker 3: I said it just kind of as an aside, but it's true. I was at the UPS store the other day doing an Amazon return and the UPS store has a tip jar.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: It's just are we really Is it really better here?
00:27:28
Speaker 3: That we underpay so many different kinds of jobs, and the general public at the point of sale has to subsidize these low wages because that's what's going on here.
00:27:42
Speaker 2: There are all different kinds.
00:27:43
Speaker 3: Of ways at spayer, and the customer has to subsize low wage work. The biggest one that I can think of as food stamps. Who's the largest employer in the country, Walmart. Walmart pays people so little that they're probably on food stamps, which means that the taxpayer subsidizes those low wages, and then Walmart earns triple because the people then use those food stamps at Walmart, where maybe we wouldn't have to go through that process if they just paid them enough. And this is a concept that is getting small but notable.
00:28:24
Speaker 2: Changes in certain restaurants.
00:28:27
Speaker 3: So we were up in San Francisco over a couple of weekends ago. It was a great time and one of the recommendations that I got for brunch from Violet Witchell. If you don't follow, she is an awesome influencer up there. She's the dens Bean salad girl. She's great and I message her saying, hey, you're gluten free. You were all about San Francisco. Where should I eat? And she told me about this brunch place, Zazzi in Coal Valley, right next to Golden Gate Park, which is great because we wanted to walk around Golden Gate Park. Zazi was popping by the way and it was busy. And one of the things that I noticed as I was perusing the menu before we got there, because I always like to study see what are we going to get?
00:29:10
Speaker 2: What's gonna be great? Oh?
00:29:11
Speaker 3: They got Benedict's ooh, they've got all kinds of things. Well, here's the thing. Zazi is one of these restaurants that says, right up front, disclaimer, we charge you a certain price for all the food, but you are not tipping. It's not happening here. We pay our people a living wage, we pay them healthcare. The price that you pay on the menu is the price you will pay at check out, and you don't have to worry about tipping. So while on one hand, I do understand, you know, the the extra little bits of service that you get. Believe you me when I am, you know, throwing around money in Santa Fe and I've got lots of friends that are bartenders. I've got lots of friends that are serv We get such great service whenever we are at so many places in Santa Fe, in fact, a lot of cities outside of LA you'll get much better service because, like this is those people's careers.
00:30:13
Speaker 2: But I mean, is there.
00:30:16
Speaker 3: Something too that you don't really know what the cost is for anything when you're going out, because you're going to expect to pay twenty to thirty percent on top of everything. I mean, gosh, remember how when lyft and Uber started out, the whole reason that you wanted that over a taxi was while we pay our people well enough that you don't tip. Tipping was not a thing on Lift and Uber and then Lyfts started it, but it was really just like an extra little bonus, and then they devalued the earnings of Lyft and Uber drivers so many times where the tipping was not nearly just as expected.
00:30:56
Speaker 2: It was required.
00:30:57
Speaker 3: In fact, whenever I book a Lyft, and I do it because because of course I value the service and I want to make sure they're getting the money. But I thought the whole point of those services was that a big chortion of the money I was paying to the app was going to the driver. And you know what's the side effect of Lifting Uber undercutting and underpaying their drivers and forcing us on the other end, as the consumer, to have to pay it. I'll tell you what it is. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. It has happened to me so many times. Look when we go to the airport, because we've got the dogs and we've got all the luggage, and because I want to get dropped off at the curb, we go Uber black Suv and it works out great they're here on time. Usually like if we're you know, going to Lax, it's probably like five in the morning on a Saturday. They are very polite, They are very courteous when we're driving. When we're going home from Lax, they know exactly where to find us. We'd do enough to deal with the laxit hell lot, which, by the way, where's that piece people mover still didn't exist?
00:32:01
Speaker 2: What the hell's with that?
00:32:03
Speaker 3: But every single time this has probably happened four or five times in a row. Now we're at the end of the ride. The driver hands me their business card and said, next time, just text me. Let's do this off the books because Luftenuber are taking so much bigger of a cut than they used to. So I understand why there's a culture shock. And then you look at other countries like Japan, it is rude to tip and those countries you know as much as you know, we talk about how well you get excellent service, And again I get it.
00:32:39
Speaker 2: I was in the service industry.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: There was not one place in Ireland where we did not have fantastic service. So maybe there is something too. Just tell me what the cost is upfront, like that restaurant Zazzi. By the way, the service there was spectacular, and we got the bill and it was exactly what it said on the menu. There was no line item to tip, and as a restaurant I will say, I notice it was so cool too when we were at some of the bars we're going around Dublin, is that you'd have like six or seven people all go up, they're all ordering guinness, and then the bartender he just holds out the point of sale device and he just goes around in a row, tap tap tap, tap tap, Like you can turn your table so fast by not having everyone have to do this jigsaw math while they're sitting there trying to figure out what the fifteen percent is or the twenty percent is or now it's like it used to be like is it ten, fifteen or twenty, Now it's fifteen, twenty twenty two. It's just it has gotten a little out of control here. And it's because in so many different aspects of the service industry, we underpay people, and so the real cost is not what is printed out on the menu. The cost is whatever you're paying plus twenty or thirty percent.
00:34:03
Speaker 2: And is that.
00:34:04
Speaker 3: Really a better system than what they do in Europe. I don't think it is, but I understand, Like, I mean, how much would everything go up in cost? I'm assuming it would go up twenty or thirty percent. Again again, maybe it's the culture shock, but outside of the Temple bar and Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe to live in.
00:34:30
Speaker 2: But like, the drinks were pretty reasonable.
00:34:34
Speaker 3: I think most places that we went to, we went to a lot of the locals pubs, but the guinness was maybe seven euro eight euro. You want to talk about cheap alcohol, you go to Madrid, also a place where tipping's not really a thing except for the really touristy places on La gran Villa.
00:34:52
Speaker 2: But your wine is two.
00:34:53
Speaker 3: Euro three euro And people they just they make a living and the prices are not crazy. So how is it that they do? What are we missing here? Just something to think about, all right? Final story I have to do because it is a sign of the times.
00:35:09
Speaker 2: In the Bay Area.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: People are now outbidding all cash offers to buy homes in San Francisco by instead of offering cash, offering pre IPO stock from open Ai. So the people who work at open Ai that are expecting a big IPO drop later this year or maybe next year, are privately selling their stock to buy houses, which means the person selling the house isn't getting cash, They're getting stock that, hopefully, if the IPO goes well, will be worth well more than they think it is right now. That is kind of insane, but that is kind of where we are right now. I very much one day strive to be in the Bay Area housing market. I would like to do very well on this show and the John Phillips Show. Go and see our new ventures with the live stream and the podcast. Like my new life goals is get a condo in the Bay Area, maybe in San Francisco.
00:36:09
Speaker 2: But I didn't realize that.
00:36:11
Speaker 3: I'd have to compete with not just the people who are now millionaires because they sold their stock and SpaceX, but the people that are theoretical millionaires because they hold stock in Open Ai. And it's just yet another wrinkle as the market up there just gets hotter and hotter and hotter, and I'm gonna have to sell a whole lot of ads to get that magical condo that I want outside of Golden Gate Park. Hey, thank y'all so much for listening to this show. I really appreciate it. Make sure you give me a follow on all the socials at Randy Wang Radio, on x on Instagram, and on YouTube. And watch our show tomorrow at noon to three
Speaker 1: Will the city council might only give you sixty seconds to where your grievance is.
00:00:05
Speaker 2: Oh hi, I'd like to go to the first caller on the phone.
00:00:09
Speaker 1: Well, if you're lucky, now we're giving you a full sixty minutes. It's a KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang in our long recap of the day's top local stories on your drive home, And unlike the City Council, we're the perfect vehicle to actually get your voice heard. The KADC News Blitz with Randy Wayne starts.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: No, no, it is the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. This is your daily rundown of everything you need to know that is going on in southern California as well as the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and the Central Valley.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: I compile a.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: List of all the stories up and down the state of California that I think are relevant, that I think are worth your time, stories you may have missed, and you can check it out every single day the News Blitz the home edition at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. With that, let's get into today's news blitz as we start with an update from our friends over at NBCLA, specifically the incredible reporting that Eric Leonard has been doing on the ITEAM when it comes to another Gavin Newsom proclamation that meant nothing, another Gavin Newsom proclamation that went nowhere. In the wake of the devastating fires in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon, Gavin Newsom held a press conference in Pasadena saying we're gonna get billions of dollars two billion dollars for the fire victims. Well thanks to the incredible reporting at NBCLA and Eric Leonard. A year and a half later, the vast majority of that two billion dollars has not been spent, and what was spent sometimes was completely irrelevant. Some of them went to reimburse fire agencies for fighting the fires, but some of it went to reimburse the CHP when it came to them using overtime hours during the ice protests, which the last time I checked, had nothing to do with the fires that happened in January of twenty twenty five. So this story gets out there and immediately locals are like, wait a second, there's money out there that's supposed to be for us. First off, why is it so complicated in twenty twenty six. I mean, I know why it is, but let's just talk about how it is now so easy to send anybody money. And the State of California already does this. If you file your taxes in the state of California, they probably have your bank account ready to go to send you a direct posit for that refund.
00:03:01
Speaker 2: If you're getting a refund.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: On top of that, you've got Venmo, you've got PayPal, you've got zell. It's never been easier to directly send people money. But whenever the state of California says we're going to start a program to help out the victims, first off, the money never actually goes to the victims directly, even though that would be great. Take a billion dollars divide amongst the twenty or thirty thousand people that lost homes and lost their livelihoods.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: That could be a big chunk.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: But the fact that the money's just not doing anything has caused a lot of local leaders, including Tracy Park and the Palisades and Catherine Barger in the Altadena area because that's unincorporated La County, to start asking some questions. It's so funny and it's just so telling of how California works that of course we needed a local news report to shine a light on this, to get our electeds to start kicking and screaming and demanding, wait, why can't we use some of that money for some of the stuff we need, like the desperately needed infrastructure upgrades in the Palisades and Altadena, fixing streets, fixing roads, fixing utility lines, what have you. There's money sitting an account that has already been allocated to help out these people, and it wasn't doing anything, and the money was actually going to expire at some point. So great, great job on behalf of NBCLA and Eric Leonard of getting the word out about that story. We always do our part here when I see something like that. It's my job to make sure that everyone sees that that those stories have legs, because you know, sometimes for our friends in TV journalism, they work their butt off on a story, it airs on the TV, it goes up on YouTube, and then if it doesn't catch fire, then maybe it just goes away. And that's kind of one of the mission statements that I have had since we've been doing this show for the last few years, and since I've been doing the John Phillips Show for the past eight years, is to really highlight these stories. You know, I don't usually talk about them until the day after they air, just based on when I see them on YouTube, and it's just giving another life and making sure, hey, you may not have seen this, but this is incredibly important, and I'm very glad to see that. At least now you've got Tracy Park and you've got Catherine Barger saying, wait a second, we should be getting that money. Should the money be going directly to the victims.
00:05:38
Speaker 2: Oh?
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Completely. The same thing with the fire aid money. Now that wasn't a government program, that was through a charity, but still so much of that money went to nonprofits that had nothing to do with helping out the victims of the fire. As it has never gotten easier to directly give people money. The hardest thing for the state of California is just to directly give people money. And there's a whole lot of reasons for that, including all the grift that goes on. But it's so disingenuous for Gavin Newsom to say, Okay, here's two billion dollars for the victims and the vast majority of the money went to just pay itself back for reimbursements for other agencies that were on overtime, whether it be LAFD, LA County, fd CAL fire, it doesn't matter. Like that doesn't mean anything. And this is why we focused our very first Accountability podcast on straight up that issue. Gavin Newsom as he leaves the governor's office, as he plans this presidential run, he has to deal with the fact that he has so many hollow promises, so little follow through and honestly, in the last eight years, whether you support his politics or not, he has failed to deliver on so many things that he said were important. That he said We're a game changer. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, you can watch it. Go to YouTube dot com slash at Accountability podcast and if you cannot find it, if you're having trouble spelling accountability, just email me at Randy Wangradio at gmail dot com and I'll send it to you and you'll have it. You'll be subscribed and you'll be all ready for when the next story, the next Accountability podcast gets posted on Wednesday. Now, let's stick around with the Eton fire where you still you have situations where Nathan Hakman last week talked about how he is cracking down in the Palisades on crooked contractors, on licensed contractors. We'll NBC four talk to a family where they got an offer for someone to do some repair work on their house that was damaged in the fire. Turns out they weren't licensed, and turns out well, they were about as good as pairing a house as I would be. And what's the recourse if you fall victim to one of these crooked contractors. It's good to see that the district attorney is following through on this and going for felony charges, because it's just there's just an added layer of disgust into how many different groups try to see a tragedy and find ways to profit off of it from the just worst ways possible. Now onto another disaster, the boil fire, I'll mean over the again and this is a wild one. So last week Karen Bess tours the devastation with NBC four and Karen Bess says, you know what, I'm signing an executive order in forty five days, We're going to make sure that this disgusting, rotted food that's attracting rats, that is staying looking up the whole neighborhood. Who knows what it's doing to the environment, that we get it out of there. And so Saturday morning, the crews were ready, the trucks were ready to go to start moving all of this stuff out, and then at the last second they were shut down. This is so complicated and so bizarre as to who's actually in charge here, because you have the company who all the food belongs to the cold storage facility. They don't own the building. The building's owned by somebody else, and they leased the building to the cold storage facility, but they also leased the rooftop to the solar panel farm. And it's the solar panel farm that caught fire when they were trying to reactivate some solar panels that they deactivated a few years ago, because oh, they caught fire. So apparently the people who operate the solar farm called the people who are operate the warehouse and say, we can't have you touch anything in there because we're still investigating as to how this fire started. Maybe they need to preserve everything as it is for insurance purposes, I don't know, but like, at what point because This isn't a government order. This is just another company telling another company, hey, don't touch this stuff. Ultimately, it doesn't look like anytime soon that you are going to see an expedited cleanup. And if you live in that area, I feel for you. And you know, a lot of questions are being asked, is why would you stay somewhere like that? And you're looking at one of these neighborhoods where the majority of the apartments are on rent stabilization ordnance rent control And it's not like you can just leave and go move somewhere else, because somewhere else might be double, maybe triple the cost of rent that you're used to. It's why this whole system of rent stabilized ordinances for just specific buildings that kind of freezes the rental market because once you get one of those units, you never give up. But that's also one of the problems. You know, that doesn't count in the regular market rate. So now if somebody has to leave that because their neighborhood is turned into a disaster, there really isn't going to be anything that's comparable. It is a really, really tough situation. Now, I always notice, hey, there's a story involving my hometown, the Santa Clarita Valley, and this is not a very good one. Censtomers of an auto body repair shop, a Collinton repair shop, reached out to Fox eleven to allege all kinds of unethical behavior by the owner of this repair shop over billing, billing for work that was never done. And apparently it's happened so many times. The owner himself is saying, no, no, no, these people just didn't understand what I was charging for. But it is something that does happen. I have been in a few car accidents in the last how long have I been driving? Since I was sixteen, so I have been driving for twenty five years almost. That should scare everybody. But you know, it's one thing if you have triple A and it's like the best forty bucks you'll spend ever, whether it's you know, having them get a toe out if you ran out of gas to actually fill up your gas, if you've got an EV they get a service, they'll bring you a battery that'll like charge you up for twenty minutes, what have you. But when you get into an accident, you know that the triple A driver is going to take you to a Triple A approved repair shop and they're not going to try to screw with you. But there have been incidences where that did not happen. Specifically, anytime you get into an accident and somebody begs and pleads with you to not go through insurance and to just go to their guy, and their guy will take care of you, that never ends up. Well, gosh, this must have been twenty twenty one, my wife, No, no, it was twenty nineteen, is before the pandemic. My wife and I were on the five Freeway driving to Irvine at whatever it was called then the Irvine Meadows whatever, the big outdoor venue that doesn't exist anymore, but they're rebuilding it. We were gonna go see Zach Brown Band and we are in stop and go bumper to bumper traffic on the one oh one freeway and we got rear ended, and the person begged and pleaded with us. And by the way we got rear ended, it's not like anyone was going very fast, but we had to like get out in the middle of the traffic jam exchange information.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: I was so frazzled.
00:13:55
Speaker 3: I think I took a picture of the wrong side of her license of her driver's license, but regardless, she begged and pleaded said, let me go to let me have it, take you to my guy. Let's not go through insurance, and we do that. I mean, my wife does this. This is her situation, and the person who's repair shop this is that's connected to her definitely wasn't on the up and up because we get the bumper fix and all of a sudden, the entire electrical system for my wife's car dies.
00:14:28
Speaker 2: And we cannot get it repaired.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: She finally takes it to Lexus and like, I don't know what happened here, but your old system is fried. She ended up selling the car and getting a different Lexus and it worked out fine. But yeah, be very very careful as to who you take your car to to be repaired. And one of the best defenses. I'm a big fan of it. I've had it for a very long time. At least you know when you're getting towed by Triple A, they're going to take you to somebody that you can trust. Always worked out for me. Maybe it hasn't worked out for some people, but it has always worked out for me. Karen Bass celebrated a small but important milestone. Since she launched a program to make sure we're housing veterans, she has housed over one thousand of them. And that's great and we should always be celebrating progress, especially when it comes to our veterans. That is so far too little, so far too late. Karen Bass promised that street homelessness would be over at the end of her first term.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: It's the end of her first term. It is not over.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: It is slightly down by the numbers she puts out. But if you live here, if you see it, if you feel it, if you smell it, it certainly doesn't look like it is down by any number. That being said, the failure to get the most basic shelter for our veterans is a failure of local, state, and federal government. And all you have to look to for all the failures of every level of government is the Westwood Campus. Is the VA in West la That land one hundred years ago was set aside to be used to build housing for our soldiers, for our disabled veterans.
00:16:30
Speaker 2: What have you?
00:16:31
Speaker 3: People coming back from World War One? World War II?
00:16:34
Speaker 2: What have you?
00:16:37
Speaker 3: And instead of housing being built for veterans on that land, what did the VA do they leased it out to a school to have their own baseball diamond. They leased it out to a different school for this. I think part of it was leased out to UCLA, and I think a judge has finally said that we're making all kinds of changes for that, and that is something that overwhelmingly needs to be done. At the very least, the most important thing that we should all be on the same page about is making sure all of our veterans are in some kind of shelter. And since we already have land that is set aside for them, maybe.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: We should use it.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. If you haven't had a chance yet, you have got to check out the live stream that we are now doing for the John Phillips Show every single day from noon to three. You can get it on YouTube. That's I think my favorite way to do it. Go to YouTube dot com, slash at Randy Wang Radio hit subscribe. But between noon and three the live feed is right there. You can watch the entire show, react to the videos when we react to the videos, and there's a chat room there you can comment. Some of the comments will make the screen. We're having so much fun with it. And I've also I spent a good part of the weekend retraining myself how to use Adobe Photoshop. And Adobe Photoshop in twenty twenty six is very different than Adobe Photoshop when I used to use it in two thousand and six. Now I just put a picture of John and I into there, and I say, hey, make us wear a funny hat, or make us wear a gas mask, and it just does it. So I'm putting together all kinds of silly graphics that you'll see during the commercial breaks, and we're just having a heck of a lot of fun. So YouTube dot com slash at Randy Wang Radio.
00:18:42
Speaker 2: While you're on.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: YouTube, make sure you subscribe to the Accountability podcast that's at YouTube dot com slash at Accountability Podcast.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: That is a weekly show that John and I are doing.
00:18:53
Speaker 3: It's exclusive content stuff that we could not get to on the regular radio show, but we wanted to make sure we do every single week. I have like dozens of stories that I plan for that we never got to, So we're gonna get to a whole bunch of fun stuff on there. And it's a podcast, which means not covered by the FCC, which means Johnny can work a little blue, So check that out as well. And if you'd like to follow me on the socials, you want to message me on x or Instagram, it's at Randy Wang Radio. Or if you want to be super old school and you want to email me, you can do so at Randywangradio at gmail dot com. I got a very nice note this morning from AJ. Thank you, Randy. I'm really enjoying the California Report that you put out during the week. I like that to get a preview of what you're going to discuss during the show, and I like that it covers the important things happening all over the state.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: That really makes my day.
00:19:52
Speaker 3: I you know, sometimes when you do this for a living, and it's different now with the live video streaming, but for a long time, it's just like you feel like you're talking to yourself in a wall. And I put out this thing every single day. I'm like, do people really read it? Are they enjoying it?
00:20:06
Speaker 2: Well?
00:20:07
Speaker 3: So far, I've got two hundred and forty four email subscribers and I'm increasing it every single day, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thank you so much for reading it. It is just a way for me to organize my show prep. But I figure, why am I keeping that to myself? I should share with you all of the stories that I found out today.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: We've got a lot more of those stories coming up.
00:20:28
Speaker 3: Next, it's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. Now back to today's news Blitz, which you can check out at Randywang Radio dot substack dot com. The World Cup has attracted all kinds of just the best attention. There has been so many hilarious stories of the culture shock from people in other countries witnessing what we do in this country. One of my favorite videos is of the US talking about how obsessed he is with Popeye's Chicken and if they ever brought Popeye's Chicken to Australia, they'd be doing all right well. One of the other aspects of the culture shock that we are seeing in the World Cup happens to be when it comes to people from other countries, whether it be Europe, whether it be Japan, South America, seeing how whether you are buying a drink at a bar, whether you're ordering food at a restaurant, you're getting a coffee, you're going to the ups store. Everybody is asking for a tip for everything. Every time you tap your card or you tap your phone, it's asking you for a tip. And a lot of people are like, wait, what is going on here? And it turns out we're the not normal ones here. And I got to say, you know, of course, born in raised in this country, born and raised in this state, in this city, all I know is this tipping culture. And I'm someone that worked in the restaurant industry for many years before I got into radio.
00:22:14
Speaker 2: In fact, it was funny.
00:22:17
Speaker 3: I remember when I was a supervisor at the Mooseburger Lodge at six Flags Magic Mountain. I was the boss making the big box of eight dollars an hour, and one day I had to fill in for the servers because we were short as server and I was always picking up whatever needed to be done. If someone needed to wash dishes, I'll do that. Someone needs to run in the kitchen, I used to be the kitchen lead. I can do that. But one day I took off my blue supervisor uniform and put on the khaki Musburger Lodge shirt and I walked up and down is the first time I ever really weighted tables, and you know what, I was shocked by that. I came home with one hundred dollars cash. And this is in two thousand and three, two thousand and four. And I remember at that very moment, even though I was the supervisor, I was the one in charge of everybody, I was like, wait a second, this is more money than I usually make in a whole day, and this is just on the tips. And I get it right now because this is way before, like credit cards were a huge deal, so most everyone paid you in cash. And I was like, wait, do I really want to continue being a manager or do I want to be a waiter. A couple of years later, I ended up working as a waiter at TGI Fridays and I loved that job. And I did very well on my tips because I had a trick of I would memorize people's order, I wouldn't write it down, and I always got it right. Risky game, but it always paid off. But more importantly than that, I made sure the waters were full and the sodas were refilled. You want to get a good tip, you do that. But that's kind of the thing here. Service is so dependent on well, you know that you're going to get a financial benefit from it, and it is how you can work these very low wage jobs. In some states they still do sub minimum wage where you're actually paid against your tips and so your actual minimum wage is below the minimum wage, which sounds like a nightmare to begin with, but that's kind of how the culture is here. And it wasn't until I went to Europe at the end of last year that I had ever seen it done any differently, because even if you go to, you know, resorts in a different country, and I have been to Costa Rica and I'm pretty sure there was tipping when we were at the resorts there at the four seasons. I've been to Puerto Rico, but that's really the same country. But when I fir went to Europe and the first place that we stopped at in Europe was in Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, which if you've never been to Dublin, you should go. It is so much fun. But the first thing that we noticed that was like, wow, this is so different is you know, got a great recommendation of a hold up a bunch of different pubs to go get a guinness. We even did this beautiful music tour where a local told us about the history of trad traditional Irish music. As we got guinness at all these great locals bars, and the thing that I noticed was how quickly all the tables were turning, Like you don't just grab your barstool and sit there for a really long time and pet the bottle. No no, no, no no. You order your guinness, you tap to pay with your phone. Everyone uses Apple Pay in Dublin, and there is no tipping when you buy a guinness and getting guinness poured from the professionals, you do not tip. Now the occasional super touristy place there might be a line for people to tip if they want to, but it's not expected. So if you go to the Temple bar, maybe people will tip because they don't know better. But typically the culture there is the people who are working at the pubs are making a living wage, so they don't need your tips. They're making a decent living doing what they do best, pouring the best guinness.
00:26:35
Speaker 2: You have ever had. And by the way, if you've ever had guinness and you.
00:26:37
Speaker 3: Don't like it, it's because you did not have it in Ireland. And I believe this for so many European beers. I used to think Heineken was disgusting until I had it in Amsterdam and I'm like, oh, it just doesn't travel well. You get it at the source, it's really great. Well, that was the thing that I noticed, and this was true. If you went to a sit down restaurant again, it was not expected, but you could tip maybe ten percent, but for the most part you did not see this tipping everywhere, tipping for everything.
00:27:12
Speaker 1: You know.
00:27:13
Speaker 3: I said it just kind of as an aside, but it's true. I was at the UPS store the other day doing an Amazon return and the UPS store has a tip jar.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: It's just are we really Is it really better here?
00:27:28
Speaker 3: That we underpay so many different kinds of jobs, and the general public at the point of sale has to subsidize these low wages because that's what's going on here.
00:27:42
Speaker 2: There are all different kinds.
00:27:43
Speaker 3: Of ways at spayer, and the customer has to subsize low wage work. The biggest one that I can think of as food stamps. Who's the largest employer in the country, Walmart. Walmart pays people so little that they're probably on food stamps, which means that the taxpayer subsidizes those low wages, and then Walmart earns triple because the people then use those food stamps at Walmart, where maybe we wouldn't have to go through that process if they just paid them enough. And this is a concept that is getting small but notable.
00:28:24
Speaker 2: Changes in certain restaurants.
00:28:27
Speaker 3: So we were up in San Francisco over a couple of weekends ago. It was a great time and one of the recommendations that I got for brunch from Violet Witchell. If you don't follow, she is an awesome influencer up there. She's the dens Bean salad girl. She's great and I message her saying, hey, you're gluten free. You were all about San Francisco. Where should I eat? And she told me about this brunch place, Zazzi in Coal Valley, right next to Golden Gate Park, which is great because we wanted to walk around Golden Gate Park. Zazi was popping by the way and it was busy. And one of the things that I noticed as I was perusing the menu before we got there, because I always like to study see what are we going to get?
00:29:10
Speaker 2: What's gonna be great? Oh?
00:29:11
Speaker 3: They got Benedict's ooh, they've got all kinds of things. Well, here's the thing. Zazi is one of these restaurants that says, right up front, disclaimer, we charge you a certain price for all the food, but you are not tipping. It's not happening here. We pay our people a living wage, we pay them healthcare. The price that you pay on the menu is the price you will pay at check out, and you don't have to worry about tipping. So while on one hand, I do understand, you know, the the extra little bits of service that you get. Believe you me when I am, you know, throwing around money in Santa Fe and I've got lots of friends that are bartenders. I've got lots of friends that are serv We get such great service whenever we are at so many places in Santa Fe, in fact, a lot of cities outside of LA you'll get much better service because, like this is those people's careers.
00:30:13
Speaker 2: But I mean, is there.
00:30:16
Speaker 3: Something too that you don't really know what the cost is for anything when you're going out, because you're going to expect to pay twenty to thirty percent on top of everything. I mean, gosh, remember how when lyft and Uber started out, the whole reason that you wanted that over a taxi was while we pay our people well enough that you don't tip. Tipping was not a thing on Lift and Uber and then Lyfts started it, but it was really just like an extra little bonus, and then they devalued the earnings of Lyft and Uber drivers so many times where the tipping was not nearly just as expected.
00:30:56
Speaker 2: It was required.
00:30:57
Speaker 3: In fact, whenever I book a Lyft, and I do it because because of course I value the service and I want to make sure they're getting the money. But I thought the whole point of those services was that a big chortion of the money I was paying to the app was going to the driver. And you know what's the side effect of Lifting Uber undercutting and underpaying their drivers and forcing us on the other end, as the consumer, to have to pay it. I'll tell you what it is. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. It has happened to me so many times. Look when we go to the airport, because we've got the dogs and we've got all the luggage, and because I want to get dropped off at the curb, we go Uber black Suv and it works out great they're here on time. Usually like if we're you know, going to Lax, it's probably like five in the morning on a Saturday. They are very polite, They are very courteous when we're driving. When we're going home from Lax, they know exactly where to find us. We'd do enough to deal with the laxit hell lot, which, by the way, where's that piece people mover still didn't exist?
00:32:01
Speaker 2: What the hell's with that?
00:32:03
Speaker 3: But every single time this has probably happened four or five times in a row. Now we're at the end of the ride. The driver hands me their business card and said, next time, just text me. Let's do this off the books because Luftenuber are taking so much bigger of a cut than they used to. So I understand why there's a culture shock. And then you look at other countries like Japan, it is rude to tip and those countries you know as much as you know, we talk about how well you get excellent service, And again I get it.
00:32:39
Speaker 2: I was in the service industry.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: There was not one place in Ireland where we did not have fantastic service. So maybe there is something too. Just tell me what the cost is upfront, like that restaurant Zazzi. By the way, the service there was spectacular, and we got the bill and it was exactly what it said on the menu. There was no line item to tip, and as a restaurant I will say, I notice it was so cool too when we were at some of the bars we're going around Dublin, is that you'd have like six or seven people all go up, they're all ordering guinness, and then the bartender he just holds out the point of sale device and he just goes around in a row, tap tap tap, tap tap, Like you can turn your table so fast by not having everyone have to do this jigsaw math while they're sitting there trying to figure out what the fifteen percent is or the twenty percent is or now it's like it used to be like is it ten, fifteen or twenty, Now it's fifteen, twenty twenty two. It's just it has gotten a little out of control here. And it's because in so many different aspects of the service industry, we underpay people, and so the real cost is not what is printed out on the menu. The cost is whatever you're paying plus twenty or thirty percent.
00:34:03
Speaker 2: And is that.
00:34:04
Speaker 3: Really a better system than what they do in Europe. I don't think it is, but I understand, Like, I mean, how much would everything go up in cost? I'm assuming it would go up twenty or thirty percent. Again again, maybe it's the culture shock, but outside of the Temple bar and Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe to live in.
00:34:30
Speaker 2: But like, the drinks were pretty reasonable.
00:34:34
Speaker 3: I think most places that we went to, we went to a lot of the locals pubs, but the guinness was maybe seven euro eight euro. You want to talk about cheap alcohol, you go to Madrid, also a place where tipping's not really a thing except for the really touristy places on La gran Villa.
00:34:52
Speaker 2: But your wine is two.
00:34:53
Speaker 3: Euro three euro And people they just they make a living and the prices are not crazy. So how is it that they do? What are we missing here? Just something to think about, all right? Final story I have to do because it is a sign of the times.
00:35:09
Speaker 2: In the Bay Area.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: People are now outbidding all cash offers to buy homes in San Francisco by instead of offering cash, offering pre IPO stock from open Ai. So the people who work at open Ai that are expecting a big IPO drop later this year or maybe next year, are privately selling their stock to buy houses, which means the person selling the house isn't getting cash, They're getting stock that, hopefully, if the IPO goes well, will be worth well more than they think it is right now. That is kind of insane, but that is kind of where we are right now. I very much one day strive to be in the Bay Area housing market. I would like to do very well on this show and the John Phillips Show. Go and see our new ventures with the live stream and the podcast. Like my new life goals is get a condo in the Bay Area, maybe in San Francisco.
00:36:09
Speaker 2: But I didn't realize that.
00:36:11
Speaker 3: I'd have to compete with not just the people who are now millionaires because they sold their stock and SpaceX, but the people that are theoretical millionaires because they hold stock in Open Ai. And it's just yet another wrinkle as the market up there just gets hotter and hotter and hotter, and I'm gonna have to sell a whole lot of ads to get that magical condo that I want outside of Golden Gate Park. Hey, thank y'all so much for listening to this show. I really appreciate it. Make sure you give me a follow on all the socials at Randy Wang Radio, on x on Instagram, and on YouTube. And watch our show tomorrow at noon to three
