You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you until eight thirty tonight instead of nine o'clock. We've got a special on the LA wildfires airing tonight at eight thirty. It takes a special look at all of the people who have been helping out, all the organizations who have been helping out during the fires. And now that we find ourselves in the aftermath of this thing.
And we are officially there in the aftermath of this thing, my goodness, what a stretch of weeks. It has been across Los Angeles County. I mean, a disaster like we've never seen before in two separate sections, in addition to other fires that have burned and damaged a lot of land. But my goodness, the loss of homes, the loss of lives, and now really the hard part begins, and it's barely beginning. Now. This is the hard part. It was the devastating part
that we've now made it through. But the two wildfires that ravaged the Palisades and the Altadena and Pasadena areas they are now fully contained. All these weeks later, keep in mind it was the end of the first week beginning of the second week of January. We've just finished that month. All these weeks we've been dealing with this, twenty nine people dead, more than sixteen thousand buildings, thirty seven thousand acres destroyed. But now all of the evacuation
orders have been lifted as of this moment. The rule is that only residents and approved contractors are being permitted back into those former evacuation zones. But it looks like some of this stuff is going to start changing and it's not sitting well with folks. So it seems like a lot of mixed messages out there, not just from public officials, not just from civic leaders, but also from residents.
Also.
We saw the lines of Palisades residents trying to get back to their homes, some of them for the first time since this thing happened to them. They haven't seen the ashes of what was once their lives. Lines and lines hours long as they tried to make it through checkpoints. Well now tomorrow morning, Sunday morning, eight o'clock, the checkpoints as we know them are going away on Pacific Coast Highway.
It's reopening one lane in each direction as of eight o'clock tomorrow morning, with very reduced speed limits down to twenty five miles per hour. So it's still going to be a slow slog. But the question is what does that mean for the Palisades. Obviously, people who lost their homes want to get back there. They want to get started on what is now the hard part of this. But what about the rest of us that want to
check it out? Is that gonna happen? Are the lukie loose now going to be sliding into the Palisades getting in the way of these grieving families trying to rebuild those lives. The LAPD says they're gonna have extra patrols there more than usual to make sure that no funny business is going on. But it was just a few months ago that the LAPED was having a hard time keeping burglars out of houses in Encino, and that place
wasn't even on fire. So how confident can you feel right now if you're returning to the Palisades that you can do so with an appropriate amount of space, not just to bring in the architect not just to bring in contractors to talk about what is possible on the sites. Not just to retrieve whatever memento from your former life that you can from the smoldering ashes of your dreams,
but can you have the space to grieve. Keep in mind, so many of these people are going to look at this for the first time, and then that fills me with conflict because I'm a journalist. I've represented KFI out in the field during these fires, and I've gotten to go past those checkpoints so that I can report from them.
And I have seen up.
Close the damage in Altadena and the damage in the Palisades, and it is another thing entirely to be so close to it. I've said it before, I think a couple weeks ago I talked about it that I feel like everybody who is with an earshot of this broadcast should go check it out. But also you shouldn't right now, you know, I mean, right now, it's just not a good time. But I feel like we need to see
it to fully understand the depth of it. We've all seen images, videos, you've heard our reports here on the radio, and the shocking aerial footage that really puts it into perspective. But to stand next to those ashes is something else, and it makes you appreciate the need for wildfire prevention, and it also helps you appreciate just how dangerous they can be. You know, it's a fact of our lives
here in La County. We have fire season. When I got hired as a reporter here, you know, they give you notebooks, they give you recorders, and they give you fire clothes. I didn't have that back in Kentucky. So I know it's a part of life here. But when it happens at this scale like this, where so many people live, it's just something that needs to be experienced.
So I hope, I hope.
There's an opportunity for folks who have nothing to do with the Palisades to get a chance to experience, if you have nothing to do with Altadena, to get a chance to experience that devastation with honor and with respect. Now doesn't seem like the right time, but it also seems like the invitation is there. PCH is opening tomorrow morning.
Palisades residents aren't all that excited about it. They're telling media outlets like oh Is that it seems like an invitation for people that you know are up to no good to come in or people who might just be getting in the way. So I say this is the time that the hard part begins. We've been through the devastation, and it's not just the hard part of keeping people
out of neighborhood who shouldn't be there. It's not just the hard part of folks measuring their lots and figuring out what their new home might look like there, or even before that happens, for EPA folks or private contractors to come in and clean it up.
We've got the politics to deal with.
So Mayor Bass seems confident that now is the time to let everybody back into the palisades to see what's left of it. We know President Trump has had feelings about the fires, what led up to them, what should be done. Now he's talking a lot about water and his role and water now flowing to southern California, a position that's being disputed by others that says his decisions have had nothing to do with getting water to southern California.
I mean, this is what we're going to be dealing with.
Also, on top of all of the reality, we have to deal with the show, the political theater. We're going to do our best to sift through all of that as it transfer here at KFI, certainly in the news, and also on Saturday nights, as long as I get to sit with you guys every couple of hours on four a couple of hours every Saturday night, I'll tell you this. We saw the politics of it start to play out in a rare, tense city council meeting at
LA City Hall. I watch almost every La City Council meeting, either there at the building or from here at the studio in Burbank to report on it for you all. And this was a unique meeting. This was one that I had not seen before. These folks got angry at each other, and they got angry at each other about rent and evictions and the role that the wildfires in the Palisades may play in such things elsewhere in the city, rent increases and possible evictions. Some folks wanted an eviction moratorium,
a freeze on rent increases. Others said that that was just not appropriate. We're gonna be talking about that up next and then later this hour. There is an unlikely neighborhood in Los Angeles that's saying eight Palisades people while you're waiting to rebuild your life in the Palisades, maybe we're the home for you.
We'll talk about that too.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you tonight till eight thirty, and that's when we'll flip over to a special from iHeart on the La wildfires. The folks, the organizations who have been working to support people during the fires, and now that we have reached the aftermath that starts at eight thirty tonight. There was a big fight at La City Hall that was inspired by the wildfires.
Shortly after the fires destroyed the Palisades, which is in La City proper, a series of packaging flew through city Hall, no vetting, a committee, nothing, They were just eager to help. Everybody agreed that it was an emergency situation and there's a whole lot of stuff. We're gonna make it easier for people rebuild all that sort of thing. We're going to make sure that there are reports from LADWP about
the water situation. The Fire Department is going to be telling us what they need from us to be better. But that changed quickly. And I've covered La City government now for about a year, and usually the color comes from the gallery folks that show up pretty regularly. A lot of gag flies there at La City Hall, like the pop off at the people who've been elected to office, and that's where the fireworks are. It's kind of annoying. Actually,
they don't really have anything interesting to say. They're just antagonistic. But this this was interesting because this was council member versus council member versus council member versus council member, and
you rarely see that. And the fight was over some protections for renters across La So instead of approving this proposal that came from council members unsses Hernandez and Hugo Soto Martinez, two of the most progressive politicians maybe in La County but certainly on the La City Council, they didn't approve it. They decided to send this one back to committee. And what that means is that the Housing Committee and its members will take a look at the
proposals and maybe make some changes. And if they decigned to send it out of committee with a recommendation then will come back to the full council for consideration. But this thing caused some fireworks there on Spring Street downtown earlier this week. The plan was one that included a one year freeze on rent increases, and some members of council just didn't think that that was appropriate. Right now, Raoul, let's hear from Councilman John Lee.
It's disappointing and concerning to see the eviction moratorium being pushed forward today at a time with so much uncertainty. This body is choosing to take advantage of an event that demands compassion and thoughtful response. Instead of offering real, targeted support, we're pursuing a blanket policy that is only going to make a complicated housing crisis even worse. Let's be clear, nobody today is denying that the folks who are impacted by the fires need help. We are all
in agreement on that. But to approve a blanket policy that ties the hands of housing providers and once again forces control of their properties out of their hands would be a misstep by this body. When we tell, when we as a city tell developers and property owners that at any moment, the Los Angeles city council can comeandeer your investment. Who is going to want to build in this city? Who is going to want to do business here?
If we truly want to help those directly impacted by the fires and have been displaced, then let's focus on doing that in a way that doesn't harm housing providers and discourage investment in the very housing our city desperately needs.
So that was Counselman John Lee. He represents parts of the northern San Fernando Valley. Kelcelman Hugosoda Martinez, who sponsored this piece of legislation that was proposing a sweeping rent freeze and an eviction moratorium, says this was not as broad as it had been characterized by opponents like Councilman Lee. Let's hear from a counselman, Soda Martinez.
I just want to clarify a few things for the public and for my colleagues, because I think a lot of things were said that are just simply not true. Well, one thing that was true is the comments that people don't know what they're voting on, and that's reflective on the comments that they made. There's clearly not understanding what's in front of us.
Ooh spicy.
First of all, this is not a blanket policy. Anybody of the things is blanket policy is clearly not reading the language right or reading the amendments that were introduced. This is a very narrowly tailored policy that is seeking to help the people who have had economic hardship or have lost their jobs due to the fires. That's it. It's not about anybody else. I hope folks, everyone in this room can agree that those folks need our support right now in the city of Los Angeles. Now I
have it, so that image is clear. That is who we're trying to address right here. And I have a constituent in my district that I spoke to yesterday that lost her job. She lost her job the day after the fire because a place where she worked burned down, and the only thing she has no paycheck. The only thing she has is unemployment, and that's not going to be enough to pay the rent. It's going to take her a little bit to get on her feet, which I think a year of this policy is more than adequate.
So that's the argument from supporters is like, look, yeah, these folks didn't lose a house in the Palisades, but they may have worked there, they may have been gardeners, they may have worked inside the homes also in Altadena. So let's make sure that we're putting protections in place.
But the critics we were like, no, this isn't the time, are saying this seems to be an opportunity to push a political agenda that is unrelated to this disaster, including Councilwoman Tracy Park, who represents the Palisade.
She was not happy with this proposal either. Let's hear her first clip.
Colleagues, we all know that the Palisades fire destroyed more than homes, countless businesses and workers. Grocery stores, nail salons, classrooms, churches, libraries, the YMCA, all of it saw destruction and immediate disruption overnight. My number one priority for these last twenty two days has been to advocate and fight for the entire Palisades community. Immediately after the fires, my team worked with UFCW to confirm what assistance, if any, they're workers at Ralph's and
Gelson's and Vond's needed. Thankfully, those workers had already been placed at other stores and have not experienced job loss. But we didn't stop there. We learned about other economically displaced and vulnerable workers like housekeepers and gardeners, and my team and I have been working with the entire City eleven community to place those individuals in new job opportunities.
And council Member Sodo Martinez, I know that you have shared heartbreaking stories of constituents who have lost their jobs. If you have individuals, please refer them to us, because my entire district will bend over backwards to help get people reemployed.
Okay, how's that for a snapback? Like?
Look, if you're not able to help the people in your district impacted by these fires, send them my way, because we have been getting results. That's basically what the council woman who represents the district that just burned to the ground had to say about it. But she wasn't finished. First she pulls some people, some city staff from the Housing department to answer some questions, and then she finishes with this role final.
Note that the only communications we've received about this motion are from workers in my district to have lost their jobs, but individuals who just want to see their four percent RSO increase frozen. Starting February first, that's stable, the city considers a new RSO formula, an entirely separate policy issue that has been pending in committee for nearly three months.
The RSO formula and what it should be and whether it should change is an important policy conversation, and that's why it needs to be fully vetted and discussing committee before coming to floor, this floor which I look forward to. So if this motion is really about freezing the next RSO rent increase rather than protecting a small universe of workers, that I can't support the policy or derivative uses. That is using a disaster in my district as a pretext for some other political agenda.
That's not and next and I won't play the clip role.
Councilman Unisses Hernandez said that that was offensive and that the city Council should be able to do both provide for people in the palisades and protect the people who worked there. This isn't the last we've seen in this legislation. It's going to committee. But these fires have done more than change and disrupt and unfortunately even end some lives here. It is going to reshape the politics and the government.
It already has. We saw it this week. When we come back, there is a neighborhood in Los Angeles that is inviting people from the Palisades to consider moving there, and it's not a neighborhood you would expect for these folks to go to.
We'll talk about that coming up.
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand, A.
Six Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you till eight thirty tonight instead of nine o'clock. We've got a special coming on
at eight thirty about the LA wildfires. It takes looks at the individuals and the organizations who have been stepping up and helping out during the fires, and we'll continue doing so now that we have finally reached the aftermath with folks being allowed to go check out their properties and start the long process of rebuilding their homes and their lives. So that comes on at eight thirty. Also, at the top of the hour at eight o'clock, I've got a great interview with a researcher from UC Irvine.
We'll talk about the study he just did that explains how a certain type of music might help ease your physical pain. It's a real study. He's a real academic it's in a real medical journal. You'll want to stick around to hear that. But first, obviously, with the devastation in the palace A and an Alta Dina, people are going to be looking for another place to live. I think if I lost my home in a situation like this, where you may have the opportunity to rebuild, that's where
your initial thoughts are. But that's going to be a long time, and you got to put down some roots, and you might have to do that somewhere else. What about downtown Los Angeles? Can you imagine going from walking on the sandy beaches of the Pacific Ocean with those delicious grains of sand beneath your feet too, well, you want to know what's beneath my feet on the streets of downtown Los Angeles where I do live currently. I
don't think I'm allowed to say on radio. All I'll say is it is a bit of a different world. It's nice and it's sometimes not so nice. But there is a social media campaign that has been created by the Historic Core Business Improvement District. These are those organizations that are based in small parts of Los Angeles. There are a lot of them, across LA including multiple ones in different downtown neighborhoods, and this one is trying to
get people to consider moving to downtown Los Angeles. I want to give a shout out to journalist Roger Vincent at the LA Times, who highlighted this in an article and it explains that while downtown may be familiar to a lot of people, it's not this familiar. You know, a lot of people do live downtown. I'm not alone down there. It's great. Just this morning, I got up my spouse and I'm like, are you hungry?
What do you want?
You can get up and you can just walk to stuff, And there's a lot of stuff. In spite of all the challenges down there, a lot of stuff, And our loft is nice, and the environment is often great. Too often it's not. So I'm curious what kind of case these folks can make to folks who are used to living in a coastal community, an upscale, wealthy coastal community. To be clear, there's, of course a lot of poverty
in downtown Los Angeles. It's where skid Row is, But there is a lot of wealth in downtown Los Angeles as well.
There are a lot of.
Beautiful condos in beautiful old and new buildings, so you can live a life of luxury. Downtown. It's just a little different because at some point you do have to leave your home. And in the Palisades, it's still nice to leave your home and walk on those sidewalks and get down to the beach and that sort of thing. And I'm sure when it's rebuilt it will retain those qualities. Downtown. I love it, Oh, I love it. I love it, And I have to remind myself of that a lot.
You know, what are the good things? Why do I like living here? It's walkable. I can hop on a train really quick. I'm in the middle of everything. Wherever I need to go, I'm already in the center and I just head out in the other direction.
It's fine. But man, it's not so good.
Sometimes it's just not I mean, I stepped over human vcs today. I'll just tell you today I was going to get a sandwich. So Executive director Blair Bestin of the Historic Core Business Improvement District told The La Times the West Side and the Pasadena area might be saturated with people wanting to move in proximity to where they lived before but it might not be possible. So that's why this organization is trying to capitalize on an opportunity
to bring these residents down town. Co Star, which is a real estate data provider and also an immediate life that does a great job covering real estate issues. They say that there were a lot of people who were displaced by these fires who were renters. They reported about four hundred and eighty multi family buildings with nine five hundred rental units were potentially damaged or destroyed within these fire zones. That's a lot of people who are not
rebuilding a house because it wasn't their house. It was their home, but it was not their house. And a lot of those buildings that were damaged or destroyed or older, smaller apartment buildings owned by mom and pop landlords, so they don't have a lot of the desirable amenities that you can actually find in the apartment buildings downtown air conditioning, fitness centers. I've got a pool on my roof, you know, after I step over the human feces, as unpleasant as
that is, I take the elevator to the roof. There's a basketball court, there's a swimming pool, there is a hot tub. There's a lovely fitness center, a convenience store, three restaurants, all in the courtyard area.
I will step over some human feces for that. I don't know.
I feel like I'm sending mixed signals to the folks who are considering moving downtown. It has its advantages, it has its disadvantages. I suppose that's true of a lot of places.
But nowhere is it.
Truer in Los Angeles than the original Downtown Los Angeles, our first neighborhood. So much great food, so much great architecture, beautiful homes to live in.
But it needs attention.
And you know what, I want to scream at the top of my lungs, not at the expense of the people who really need our attention right now in the Palisades in Altadena, it feels like LA suffered a disaster years ago. Downtown LA suffered a disaster years ago, and the response has been so limp. You know, I mean, this is this is the heart of the Los Angeles economy, whether you want to acknowledge that or not. It's where it's the economic engine of the region, Downtown Los Angeles.
And yet when you come down to it, you look around and you think, oh wow, that's really cool, and oh my god, that is awful. That is terrifying. What am I standing in? So I don't want to scare you away. Come join us downtown. We need some good people down there. There are a lot of good people, of course, but can always use more, and we certainly have the room while you figure out what's next for your life after these devastating fires. I talked earlier about
how these things are being politicized. I want to be clear, just in case you don't know or need a reminder. Government and politics are not the same. They are very obviously intertwined. They are related closely, but they are not the same. So the government response to this disaster is not necessarily the same or maybe shouldn't be the same as the politics of it. The politics are kind of getting in the way and affecting the way people feel
about what comes next, what should come next. And a national political figure is coming here next week and we'll talk about that coming up.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News We're with you till eight thirty tonight. That's when we'll start a special on the LA wildfires with a focus on the organizations and individuals who have been helping during the wildfires and now that we've reached the aftermath, will continue to help. So stay tuned for that. At eight thirty. It's cutting our show tonight a little bit. That's all right, you'll want
to stay tuned for it. And at the top of the hour, I'll be talking to a researcher from UC Irvine who has just released a study that says, if you listen to this certain specific type of music in a certain type of way, it may ease some of your chronic pain. It was a pretty interesting study, and I hope you'll stick around to hear about that. There was a police shooting in Newport Beach today and I saw some video on social media. Perhaps you've seen it as well in the media, and it was a wild scene.
According to reports, this was a guy who was suspected of killing a woman that he knew over in Minifee and then he ended up being shot to death by police on the Newport Beach Pier. He drove his car onto the pier while people were there. It's a beautiful day and a police shooting erupted. The Minife Police Department says officers were called to a report of gunshots on Mesa Edge core To about two forty three this morning.
They found a dead woman inside. She was later identified as Storm Wolf of Temecula and they already believe that this is a murder. And then this forty five year old guy, Jose Velasquez, was quickly identified as a primary suspect in this woman's death, and they figured that he may have traveled to Santa Anna, so the Santa Anna Police was contacted for assistance in finding him. They found him in his car on North Freeman Street in Santa Anna. They tried to stop him, but a pursuit, so they
pursued him. It ended up in Newport Beach where an officer involved shooting, as they call it took place. No police officers were hurt, but this guy died at the scene. He was the lone guy in his car. Nobody else was with him. What a scene hanging out on the Newport pier and then some suspected murderer is shot death in your midst That is pure Southern California.
Something else.
It's been happening a lot lately that I've noticed. It's almost daily when I come in and check the files and see what's going on in the news, And we don't always report on these, but they are important. A pedestrian was killed by a car on the freeway, the one ten freeway in downtown LA, and I'm finding that this is happening so frequently. Obviously, it is tragic when a pedestrian, someone walking on the street is hit by a car and killed, and that happens way too much
across Los Angeles. But what are these pedestrians doing on the freeways. It is nearly constant, and typically we find out later that these are homeless folks who are living nearby the freeways, or they are drug addicts experienced.
In some kind of episode.
But that is so dangerous on the freeway. It is happening almost constantly. I feel like every Saturday night when I come in to check to see what news is out there, it's always a pedestrian fatality, but there were multiple other ones this week. Don't walk on the freeway, y'all, just stay off of that. It's not necessary, all right, Next week, We're gonna have a visitor in La County. His name is Reverend Al Sharpton. He is coming to rally and support of folks impacted by the fire in Alta, Dina,
he said in a news release. The wildfires scourging Los Angeles these last few weeks have been a devastating humanitarian and natural disaster. People have lost their homes, their memories, and ultimately their lives to this devastation. While some have sought to use this horrific event to score political points. This Thursday, I will join with Attorney Ben Crump to bring the community together to mourn those we lost and
galvanize them to recover and rebuild. His organization has cited a recent UCLA study that said black residents in Altadena were disproportionately affected by home losses in the Eaten fire. So be on the lookout for Reverend Al Sharpton next Thursday. That's not all that's coming in next week. We've got a storm system moving into southern California expected to bring widespread rain, gusty winds, and maybe even some heavy downpours and some areas. National Weather Service says there was still
variability about the strength of the expected storms. We don't know exactly how strong this thing will be, but we will keep an eye out for it, and we'll be updating you every day here at KFI News.
I'm Michael Monks.
Follow me online if you like that sort of thing at Mike Monks La m I C M O Nksla on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok if you're into that. Love talking to you on Saturday nights and of course Monday through Friday, doing the news here for you on KFI.
Stay tuned to us.
Coming up on our next hour, that interview with the researcher from UC Irvine about the connection between easing your pain by listening to a very specific type of music.
We'll have that for you coming
Up KFI AM six forty on demand