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