@TiffHobbsOnHere | Deeper Dives: Street Sweeping in L.A.

Go on KFIAM six forty dot com under special Features and you'll find me there, and you'll find Michael Monks there, and you'll find lots of other things there, so you can always stay up to date on what we are talking about. And the next thing I want to talk about is the introduction of a new segment, a new segment and I'm calling it Deeper Dives. No, we're not going to talk about the ocean anymore right now. We might,

but not right now. This is going to be expose's written by journalistic outlet, whether it's newspapers or social media, if it's credible, whatever it may be, that takes a deeper, longer look into a story that directly impacts Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and southern California. And this one specifically for our first story under the Deeper Dives News segment has to do with street sweeping. When you park in Los Angeles, you'd better pay close attention to those street signs.

We know it. You pull up to a curb and

the signs seem to be confusing on purpose. You might be able to park between two and four, but not between four and six, and only for one hour until eight pm, and then after eight pm there's no parking unless you have a special city issued permit that says you belong in that neighborhood that's happened to me for sure, Or the the wonderful fun street signs that seem to be stacked one on top of each other like a totem pole, where each sign seems to negate the last

or contradict the last, And now you are left standing underneath this menagerie of signs trying to decode when the heck you can park your car to pick up your food pickup or pick up your groceries, or run into that store to get your kid, or whatever it may be, just to park because you don't have parking at your home, whatever it may be and we've all if you are a driver in Los Angeles, I imagine that we all have fallen victim to getting a ticket for some reason

when it comes to parking, Raoul, have you gotten a parking ticket before? Absolutely? Do you remember what it was for? Just one of them? I'm sure there's been more than one.

And I imagine you understand why everything was all haywire because of COVID, whether budgetary allocations, whether staff shortages. During twenty twenty, street sweeping in the City of Los Angeles went by weekly, so instead of that weekly occurrence, by weekly, and for some people did not expect street sweeping to

happen at all. I remember living adjacent to a neighborhood in which street sweeping was paused indefinitely and people parked without fear of any sort of parking enforcement moving their car, ticketing their car because of that street sweeping that we had all come to expect. But then one day it changed, and it changed with very little warning. But there are still some residents who say street sweeping is not occurring at all, and when it does, it's kind of like

a surprise. Here's this big truck coming down your street. Oh crap, gotta move the car. Westside Current dot com is a local investigative website that focuses on stories in and around southern California, and they launched a watchdog series

that spotlights broken systems. Yay for them. I know they've looked at the copper wiring and the street lights, They've looked at potholes and other sorts of street infrastructure, and now they are focusing on the dirty truth behind street sweeping quote, where promises of clean streets rarely match reality. They actually spoke to some people who had evidence of what they've been dealing with in their own neighborhoods. One person, Marty Franklin, says that he noticed that a street sweep

had stopped coming to his neighborhood in Los Felice. He then reached out directly to the city for answers because the trash was in fact piling up. He emailed counselwoman Nythia Ramin's office who represents his district, and said, I'd like to know why the streets weren't cleaned the last two cycles. We pay our taxes for this service, and I think I have a right to know. The following day, he got a response from Nythia Rahman's office. It read,

hope you are well. Just heard back from my contact that they have spoken with the supervisor to ensure your street is not missed tomorrow. Please let me know if it is, and I will go ahead and escalate that, Franklin says. An hour and a half later, he received another response from Ramen's office, which provided no specific answers

and instead started to place blame on a lack of records. So, instead of ownership and accountability, Nathia Rahman's office decided to start pointing fingers, and they said, unfortunately BSS, the group or the organization that's in charge of street sweeping, did not have an explicit record of the street being missed. Sometimes streets are missed if there is something in the way that prevents the truck from being able to get

through the street. If this is case, If this is the case two schedules in a row, they will try to arrange on a different day. Unfortunately, as there was no record of this, this did not happen. The supervisors will now be keeping an eye on this specific route to ensure this does not happen again. If it does, please let me know so I can flag it for

further investigation. Despite this email exchange in this assurance from Nythia Rahmen, his council person and her office in the area of Los Felees, Franklin, this resident, who was being interviewed for this investigative journalism, said that he continued to see no change, and not only was there no change over the next few weeks, no, there was no change over the next three months three months, and he repeatedly followed up with the city only to receive the same

vague responses about why his street was not cleaned, as well as the same blame being placed and finger pointing that again did not avail him or the situation to any sort of specific details. This happened in September, so from September to December there was no change. In January of this year, Franklin was still seeing no improvement in street cleaning in his area of Los Felies. He reached out to the city again and this he was assured that a supervisor would be present during the next scheduled

street sweeping to ensure that the job was completed. I'm going to tell you what happened to this resident in the area of Los Felees after he contacted the office after four months of inactivity and a lack of street sweeping. And I'll also let you know the greater implications that this street sweeping program has on the city of Los Angeles, as well as what is being done and hopes to curtail what seems to be a gross oversight when it

comes to sanitation in our city. We'll do all that on the other side of the break when we come back. I am six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

streets sweeping. And again when you park in La, street sweeping and other sorts of parking signs become the bane of your existence, and you need to pay attention lest you end up with lots and lots and lots of parking tickets which become too synonymous, all too common with living and working in the city of Los Angeles. It's a major money maker. And I was talking about Marty Franklin, who is the resident. Is a resident of Los Fales and the subject of an investigative report by the website

west Side Current. And Westside Current is doing a watchdog series on failed streets or failed city systems, and in this one they are investigating street sweeping. Marty Franklin in step Timber of twenty twenty four, so just a few months ago, noticed two missed weeks of street sweeping. This is a recap. There were two weeks where there was no street sweeping in his neighborhood in Los Felis. So he reached out to his councilwoman, Nythia Ramen for some answers,

for some sort of timeline. She assured him that the sweepers would be out, but four months later in January, so from September to January, there had been no street sweeping, and there were multiple exchanges between Franklin and Nathia Rahman's office via email in which he was assured that the street sweepers would be out and there would be a supervisor there in his neighborhood to support. But none of that happened for four months between September and January. But

something did happen. Marty Franklin received numerous tickets, tickets because he had street parking only in his neighborhood. These areas like Los Felies, or if you're in downtown, or these densely populated areas where there may not be parking available for you or your guests then result in a lot of infractions. And Marty Franklin himself fell victim to that. But he was getting ticketed, but there were no street sweepers. Marty Franklin, unlike Raoul, unlike myself, unlike maybe you, Brigitta

or those of you out there listening. You know, we pay our tickets. But Marty Franklin fought back. He said, hell, no, I'm not paying all this money. He reached out to the city again and this time he said, you know what, I'm sick of this. Not only do I have a watchdog organization with me interested in my story, that's West Side Current where this story story comes from. But he said, I'm going to the media. I'm going to expose all of these emails and the inactivity and the negligence on

behalf of the city. The following week, his street was swept with a supervisor present. Surprise, surprise. Dan Howden, spokesperson for Streets LA, says street sweeping is common and that LA provides regular street sweeping service five days a week. They also sweep for special events like parades, marathons, sick lavilla. He says, if you need some sort of extra support, call three to one one or use the my three to one one app and share your concerns and we

will respond. But West Side Current uncovered that residence say that line, that sort of direction is a dead end, that like Marty Franklin, nothing happens. There are main complaints that West Side Current uncovered in their investigative story here. One of the first ones was outdated street signs, so the mismatch between signage and actual service only adds to confusion for residents and it leads to unnecessary parking restrictions

and of course ticketing, of course ticketing. In the first half of twenty twenty four, the city issued just over two hundred and forty thousand citations for parking in a street cleaning zone, and many of those tickets that were handed out were not in areas in which street sweeping was actually happening, even though it was supposed to occur.

Another complaint is that the curbs in certain areas that street sweepers need to go down apparently don't allow for street sweepers to maneuver to get all the way down the curb, and that becomes a hazard in which the streets driver, whoever's in charge of that truck, can say

there was an obstruction, I could not get down that street. However, when Westside Current checked some of these locations that were noted, they saw that street sweeping would not in fact be obstructed, that there was a clear and thorough path to these areas, and that it seems that some of these drivers may be using some subjectivity in whether or not they want

to in fact go down these streets. All of this is resulting in trash not being picked up, trash going into storm drains and waterways being carried into the ocean, being carried into water facilities that we need to use. And of course many many people who are being sighted unfairly, like Marty Franklin for parking in areas in which is not only confusing, but street sweeping is not occurring and

does not occur for months on end. Westside Current reached out to LA Department of Transportation for comments and did not hear back. So, if you are having issues with street sweeping in your area, threaten to take the media. Call us up here, let us know we'll support you. We'll be happy to have your back in this issue so that you can get those street sweepers out to your neighborhood. When we come back, we're going to talk about a new California law that's named after a former

student and hazing victim. It's sorority and fraternity intake season, it's the spring on college campuses, and there's a new law in place to make that sort of process safer. I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app tifnany Hobbs here with you.

that type of stuff. Well, Phil told us that we have a few more weeks of winter, I believe. But on college campuses it is now the spring semester. Did you look it up? He's a groundhog, he's a porcupine, I said, what did I say? A gopher? Were just competing further and further away, further and further away from glory. So Phil again told us that it's still winter. And you know it's still winter. You can look outside, you can feel it. Maybe not in Socow, but it's still

technically winter for a few more weeks. But on college campuses it is the beginning of the spring semester for most schools across the country, and the spring semester, the beginning of semesters comes with a lot of new, new insight and new opportunities for students, whether in picking their classes or deciding on what they want to do for

a career, or in joining social groups on campus. And spring is a very popular time for students who are interested in joining sororities and fraternities because spring offers an intake process. An intake involves you going to a meeting or being invited to a meeting. Often these things or by invitation only, and you go to a meeting and you hear the information about the organization the fraternity or sorority.

You decide if you want to stay, if you want to pursue joining that group, and if you do, there's a process that is required upon you that then proves your loyalty to that organization. It's a tale as old as time. There have been movies about it. There are all sorts of things in pop culture about sorority and fraternities, and many of those things are true for good and

for not so good. Well, one of the not so good things is the negative stereotype that a lot of fraternities in fact incur when it comes to their own intake process, and that process can include things that are exploitative, violent, assaultive, and other negative situations in which students are placed in well. In six years ago, in twenty eighteen, seven years ago, now twenty year old Tyler Hilliard was a week away from starting his junior year at UC Riverside. He went

to a fraternity event with some pledge brothers. So those are some friends who are also interested in joining this particular fraternity, and they went to this particular event at nearby Mount Rubideaux, a popular hiking spot. That day, September eight or September twenty eighteen, was a beautiful Saturday, and Tyler and his pledge brothers his friends were going to participate in a special type of punishment, kind of a rights of passage for those who were interested in joining

this fraternity. The things that they had to do included eating an entire onion covered in hot sauce, drinking extreme amounts of water, and being spanked with a part of a cactus. While that might sound like just boys being boys, there were major consequences to these events that day, Tyler was rushed to the hospital. His heart stopped seven times

that evening, and he was ultimately pronounced dead. When investigated police and Hilliard's family, Tyler's family found that his death was a result of the hazy that he had gone through with that eating of the entire onion covered in hot sauce, drinking the extreme amounts of water, and being spanked with a part of a cactus. The people who were involved in the incident, those who were the Pledge brothers,

were not prosecuted. They were not prosecuted. Nearly seven years later, this week, Tyler's Law has gone into effect and it will look to ensure that no other college students in California will endure similar hazing incidents like what Tyler went through. The law is called Tyler's Law or AB twenty one ninety three, and it was actually passed last September and is an expansion of laws that we already have in

California about hazing. Starting next year in twenty twenty six, universities in California will be able to be sued by hazing victims if the college knew about or should have

known about hazing incidents and failed to stop them. Attorney V James D. Simone says it sends a message to these universities that if you're going to have fraternities that are connected with your university, make sure they are following the law and the rules, because hazing is a crime, and you will be prosecuted and you will be held accountable the law. Tyler's Law also requires hazing incidents to be compiled into an annual report, along with disclosures as

to whether those incidents were tied to student organizations. This is very serious and it is very close to me. When I was in college, I participated in intake my freshmen and sophomore years separate sororities. I didn't end up joining either the first year because it was just simply cost prohibitive. They wanted two thousand dollars give or take in initial dues. Yes, Raoul's face, Your face tells it all.

That's what I did when I heard how much they wanted from this freshman me with no job or some menial work study job, two thousand dollars in initial dues to join, and I didn't have it. I didn't find that sorority in the process interesting enough to try and get the money. The second year, however, when I went, when I was invited to participate in an intake process for a different sorority, all of the processes on campus were paused because there was a major incident at another

university in which two young ladies died by drowning. They were in a part of their own intake process at this university. I did not know these young ladies, but they did in fact pass away, and all pledging was canceled across the school that I attended, and I just never resumed the process. Fortunately for me at the time, everything I had gone through was normative and was not violent at that point, but it definitely put a sour

taste in my mouth. This is really important. A lot of you have students, have loved ones who are in college who may be wanting to participate in sororities and fraternities, and so please let them know that certain things are just not okay and you shouldn't have to subject yourself to violence, abuse and assault to be a part of an organization. And in fact, if that organization continues to belittle or require that sort of participation, they can be

held legally responsible because of Tyler's Law. So unfortunately, this was a sacrifice that this young man made, but it is not in vain. It is not in vain. Tyler Hill, You're twenty year old student one week away from starting his junior year when he died during a pledging process. When we come back, I'm gonna tell you a a little bit about a new app available in Los Angeles. It's being called Uber with Guns Time to Move out of LA. I'll tell you all about it in a

little bit. KFI AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

Deeper Dives. We looked at street sweeping and the fact that it's not happening, but you are still being ticketed and what it might take to actually get an actual street sweeping crew out to your street. One person was able to do it, So make sure you listen to that. Maybe you use Lift or maybe you use Uber. You know it's National Marguerite Day. Maybe you're out having a few and you're not driving home. That's the smart thing

to do, call for a ride sharing service. But there's a new app that's available in Los Angeles and this one is being described as Uber with guns. What the heck is going on in LA? It has them.

they've since reduced it and they say two hunt. That's that's great, Let's give people a deal two hundred dollars per hour. You do have to pay an annual membership fee of one hundred and twenty nine dollars. All protectors are vetted. Yeah, okay. You also, as a user, get to choose the type of bodyguard you want and how they should dress. It looks like when you cope you look at any of these visuals of this situation, it looks like a video game creation, like a creative player.

You see a possible protector bodyguard and they turn it. They do a full three sixty, and you get to change their clothes and the clothes shift as they as you choose. It's kind of strange. And again it says that this is because of several high profile robberies and the service is only available in LA and New York. What could go wrong, Michael Monks, Lots of things could probably.

post if you like and share with me. We didn't play any talkbacks tonight, but I'd love to hear what you think about our new segment, Deeper Dives, and what you thought about the whole show. Be kind, Be kind, it pays, It pays everything and costs you nothing. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Stay tuned for Michael Monks and I'll see you here next Saturday. Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.