Avsnitt
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“I’ve sent an open letter to [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom. Not only have we seen the cost of almost everything go up exponentially in the last few years, but also faced new regulations and mandates. If I were to match our increased costs with menu pricing, we would be forced to charge about $40 for a cheeseburger. We can’t explain that to the customer.”
Siyamak sits down with Brian Back, who established his restaurant in the Bay Area to serve as a community asset and foster unity among people. He shares the challenges he faces with laws, regulations, and escalating costs. Additionally, we speak with John Kabateck, president of the National Federation of Independent Business, who has observed several restaurants and their owners within his organization’s membership facing difficulties in California.
“I wanted to do something that was neighborhood-scaled; I wanted to do something in my community. I wanted to have a place where family could be generating tax revenue and building community. I was naive until I opened this business. I’m spending most of the money that we earn on debt obligations to the state,” Mr. Back said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“It really has been the biggest dam removal experiment in modern history. People who were very much in favor of dam removal are now beside themselves because they had no idea this would be the outcome.”
Siyamak sits down with Theodora Johnson, a sixth-generation rancher from Siskiyou County. The Klamath Dam removal project is the largest of its kind in the US. Ms. Johnson will discuss its impact on the community, environment, and wildlife in the area. Siskiyou County recently declared a state of emergency over this dam removal.
“What’s happened with the suspended sediment in the water has brought the dissolved oxygen level down to zero twice since the dams were removed. Now, you see muck and mud, dead fish floating to the banks, crawdads, and we see animals trying to crawl out of the water to escape.” - Ms. Johnson said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“It’s being sold to the voters as treatment. But you’ve got $2 billion going into housing that can be for people who are still using hard drugs. If you have a building with, let’s say, 40 units, and 15 of the people in them are addicted to hard drugs, that is going to have an impact on the community, and the community has no say in that land use at all. That’s in Prop One.”
Siyamak sits down with Susan Shelley, columnist at the Southern California News Group. Proposition One passed barely in California. Ms. Shelley tells us what the impacts are and whether it will cause tax increases in California.
“If someone wants to do hard drugs in free housing, they have every right to do so in California. We’re not differentiating between people who are making a choice to use drugs on the street and people who are domestic violence victims and are on the street. Everybody’s entitled to free housing equally.”
“To wait until people are arrested and are jailed, and that’s where they receive mental health services, is a terrible policy. The Los Angeles County jails are the largest mental health hospital system in the nation. That’s appalling. That’s not worthy of the state of California,” the longtime columnist said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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‘It’s almost like we’re living in an open-air mental health facility. There are people walking down the streets; you don’t know if they’re going to shoot you, stab you, punch you, spit on you... And we, as parents, are kind of teaching our kids and grandkids how to be numb to the situation.’
Siyamak sits down with Matthew King, former homeless and a community advocate from Sacramento. He has seen the capital deteriorate over the last few years and will talk about homelessness, drug addiction, and crime issues that his community is facing.
We also talked to Travis Gillmore, our reporter in the state capitol. He has been talking to the state legislature, the homeless people, and police officers.
‘You’ve got union ironworkers, electricians; you’ve got a lot of people from various trades who are homeless. We’re not stupid people, either. We’re very intelligent, and we know how to do a lot of stuff. They’re selling stolen items right from the tent.’ Mr. King said.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“The goal is to densify every town in the state. To densify it—so that‘d be walking around, not driving. In some places, it doesn’t work. But this whole policy has been applied as ’one size fits all' with no complaining.”
Siyamak sits down with Amy Kalish, with Citizen Marin. She’s been studying what the housing mandates are for different cities in California, and she tells us what’s happening with California communities.
“These are buildings built for profit, single-family homes for rent only. So they’re kept off the market forever. And whole neighborhoods do get bought up by corporations. What the state does is they bloat out the [Housing and Community Development] budget, hire a lot of people to come and bother every city to see what they’re doing. They write a ton of reports to spend millions of dollars on paying consultants to write reports, and none of that is going towards any kind of solution or housing.” Ms. Kalish said.
We also talked with Lydia Kou, former mayor and current city council member of Palo Alto, to see her perspective as a city leader, and what’s going on with California cities and the housing mandates.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
https://californiainsider.com/
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“The school adopted my daughter’s new identity, which was a boy, changed her records to be male name, called her that in class. They told me I was unsafe. So they were safer for my daughter. This is a new movement that all parents are bad until proven good.”
Host Siyamak Khorrami sits down with Erin Friday, executive committee member for Protect Kids California. She tells us about a new policy in California schools, and how it has impacted her and a lot of parents across the state.
“At what age do they teach this in schools? Now is TK, that’s four years old,” Ms. Friday said, “We’ve never done this in the United States. They called me conservative, right wing. I’m a Democrat. They don’t want to put that in the story, because that’s going to open it up for other Democrats that believe what I believe.”
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
https://californiainsider.com/
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“It is like working at a zoo, and they’ve opened up every single cage: to the bears, to the lions, to the panthers, to the giraffes, to the elephants. And you got the correctional officers like: “Oh my god, what have they done here?”
Siyamak sits down with Hector Bravo, a former correctional officer and lieutenant with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who worked in the prison system for 16 years. He provides insights into the deteriorating conditions in California prisons based on his first-hand experience, and critiques the implementation of the “Norway model” of reforms, which he says has actually made the prisons more dangerous for both inmates and staff.
“I’ve been involved in numerous riots and I’ve never seen blatant disregard for life like that,” said Mr. Bravo. “Everybody is at risk. That’s exactly what California prisons are like right now, in 2024.”
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“Who is leaving? That’s probably the most worrying aspect of all of this. The people who are leaving are the most productive, what I call the seed corn of California—people who are going into family formation stage, 30- to 50-year-old people who are mid-career, people who make $200,000 a year and above. And so what we’re left with, which is kind of ironic, is an aging, graying generation that need more services in the form of personal services and health care services, and the low-income people that service them.”
Siyamak sits down with Marshall Toplansky, innovation professor at Chapman University, who has been studying California’s exodus. He shares his findings from researching the demographics of the people who are leaving California, and how this population decline is going to impact Californians—our innovation, culture, and future prosperity.
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Epoch Times.
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“I remember that year; there was just so much shooting going on. Kids would sleep in bathtubs to avoid stray bullets.”
Siyamak sits down with Pastor Paul Baines from East Palo Alto. He will share how his city managed to turn around from being the murder capital of the state and the country to achieving zero homicides.
“Believe it or not, a lot of times, young people want discipline. They desire boundaries because of their upbringing. Perhaps the father wasn’t present, or maybe the parents were absent. What discipline does is show that you genuinely care about someone.”
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“You’re going to see housing supply dropped. Investors are no longer looking at the city of LA because it’s too risky. Why would you sell a property, if you would have to give all your profit to the city?”
Siyamak sits down with Chris Tourtellotte, managing director of LaTerra, a large real estate development company based in California. He'll discuss some key challenges facing developers, including the “Mansion Tax” in Los Angeles, the environmental review process, demand for different housing types, and the impact of policies such as rent control.
“I use the word ‘deceptive’ because it was called the ’mansion tax.‘ But when they realized that ... this applies to all classes of real estate, including affordable housing projects, you kind of go, ’Oh, wait a minute. That’s not a mansion tax,'” Mr. Tourtellotte said. “People say your land is not worth much because of this tax in the end.”
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“In the last three years, we’ve had a net outflow of 1 million people. I don’t want to leave; I want to help turn the state around because I think sooner or later the voters are going to wake up, and I want to be here when that happens.”
Siyamak sits down with Larry Elder, a radio and TV host, former gubernatorial candidate in California, former presidential candidate, and best-selling author. He shares his perspective on the major problems facing California, such as high taxes, budget deficits, low-performing public schools, rising crime, homelessness, and the high cost of living, as well as his experiences with the cultural changes in California politics.
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“Opening a restaurant seems simple, right? You never anticipated that you would expect ... Every single restaurant owner I talked to, is in a PAGA lawsuit. None of them are less than six figures.”
California is the hardest state to open a restaurant, according to a new study by Restaurant Furniture. Siyamak sits down with celebrity chef Andrew Gruel, who has started and operated multiple restaurants in California, to discuss the reasons that make running a restaurant difficult in the state. We also spoke with state Sen. Shannon Grove, who sponsored legislation to amend PAGA (the Private Attorneys General Act).
“We are no longer allowed to use plastic gift cards in California that was recently signed into law. If you offer a straw to a customer, you as the server and the restaurant will get penalized. It’s a civil violation,” Mr. Gruel said. “We are creating a lot of regulations. But we’re unmooring people from a value system. Do we want every restaurant to be run like the DMV?”
Mr. Gruel shares his experiences of starting as a food truck operator and evolving into a restaurateur with multiple locations across California. He discusses the impact of labor laws, environmental policies, and the recent PAGA lawsuits on small businesses and argues that excessive regulation not only burdens businesses but also detracts from the values and community connections upon which small businesses thrive. He calls for a reevaluation of these regulations and advocates for a more balanced approach that recognizes the importance of small businesses in California’s economy and culture.
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Siyamak sits down with Gabriel Petek, California’s legislative analyst. He shares with us why California is facing such a huge budget deficit and how it may last a few more years. He also shares what it will take to solve this budget crisis.
“A couple of years ago, we had a $100 billion surplus, and we heard about these big numbers. Now, we’re estimating that we currently face a $68 billion budget deficit. The governor’s office also identifies about $30 billion in annual deficit,” Mr. Petek said. “In order to solve that problem, we would need $50 billion in higher revenues.”
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"As an elected District Attorney, I have people from my county being released from prison early and I don't know why."
Siyamak sits down with Morgan Gire, District Attorney of Placer County, who has over 24 years of experience working in the criminal justice system. He'll discuss recent criminal justice reforms in California and share his opinion on how they've contributed to rising crime in California.
"There was probably a turning point in your mind when it didn't feel as safe in California as it had before. We saw that with Prop. 47. Prosecutors said, 'When you pass this, in about 10 years we're gonna see businesses closing because people are going to be stealing right and left, and you're gonna see addicts on the street.' And people said, 'Oh, you're just these draconian prosecutors trying to scare everybody so that you can lock more people up in prison,' and nothing could be further from the truth," Mr. Gire said.
Join us as we dive into the impacts of voter-passed Propositions 47 and 57. Realignment shifted responsibility for lower-level felons from state prisons to county jails. While this was intended to reduce overcrowding, Mr. Gire notes county facilities were ill-equipped for long-term inmates. This exacerbated caseloads for probation officers, who are now supervising more serious, repeat offenders.
Prop. 47 reclassified certain drug and property crimes as misdemeanors. However, the Placer County DA argues this "one-size-fits-all" policy treats first-time and repeat thieves equally, reducing consequences. With fewer facing jail time, some business owners feel unsupported by law enforcement. Mr. Gire also links Prop. 47 to rising addiction and homelessness as fewer enter treatment programs.
In addition, Prop. 57 aimed to shorten sentences, but without proper assessment, some inmates deemed "non-violent" may be unfit for early release, said Mr. Gire.
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Siyamak sits down with Bill George, historian and filmmaker, who has been studying and documenting the history and culture of California. He'll discuss the changes he has observed in California’s state capital when it comes to homelessness, crime, and transparency in the legislative body. We'll also take a deep dive into California's history and look at the forces that shape its culture.
"I've lived in Sacramento on and off since 1982. I love the city; it's just beautiful. Recently, however, it has been degrading. School kids couldn't even walk to school without being threatened, yelled at, or cursed out. I mean, when you walk down the streets, you just hear somebody randomly spouting off a string of profanity," Mr. George said. "And then I noticed that the state Capitol was undergoing a huge renovation, a billion-dollar renovation. It was all done in secret. Even the press in Sacramento says it's been the most under-the-radar thing they've ever seen."
Join us as we explore the complex issue of homelessness in Sacramento. Having witnessed the state capital's transformation firsthand since 1982, Mr. George voices his concerns about its recent downturn, exacerbated by the billion-dollar renovation of the state Capitol building and the pandemic.
He also sheds light on the grim realities on the city's streets—where the escalating homelessness and associated social challenges contrast with official narratives and actions—and highlights the lack of public engagement in decisions that shape the city's landscape and sense of community.
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Siyamak sits down with LeRonne Armstrong, a former police chief who served for the Oakland Police Department for over 25 years. He explains how it’s difficult for the police to operate because of the rules and regulations they are facing from the city. This situation in Oakland is so dire that the governor is sending 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland to help with safety. Meanwhile, Mr. Armstrong has filed a lawsuit against the city and Mayor Sheng Thao, claiming that his dismissal last year was an unlawful act of retaliation for exposing misconduct by Oakland PD’s federal monitor, Robert Warshaw.
“When you think about a city that’s growing, but a police department that’s shrinking, it is a recipe for disaster. People are fearful that bullets could fly into their homes. We don’t want to live in a society where everyone needs to be armed. The city’s image must change,” Mr. Armstrong said. “The city has been a part of my life. Oakland, such a beautiful city, has built me. There are so many areas in the city to be proud of, but all people know about the city is its violent crime.”
According to the former police chief, Oakland’s public safety is at a crossroads, facing challenges exacerbated by a shrinking police force in the face of growing demand and stringent policies that limit officers’ ability to effectively combat crime. He sheds light on the concerning increase in auto burglaries, robberies, and violent crimes, emphasizing how these trends have instilled fear among residents and visitors alike.
Join us as we delve into the complexities of policing in Oakland, including policy restrictions that prevent officers from pursuing suspects, contributing to a sense of lawlessness. Mr. Armstrong’s insights highlight the urgent need for a unified approach to reimagine public safety, restore trust in law enforcement, and foster a safer environment for all Oakland residents.
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Siyamak sits down with Matt Schrap, CEO of Harbor Trucking Association, which represents trucking companies operating at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland. Today, he'll share his insights on what it takes for trucking companies to comply with the zero-emission mandates at the ports and how this might affect Californians.
Join us as we delve into the challenges California's trucking companies are facing because of strict emission regulations—particularly the transition to zero-emission vehicles. Expecting job losses and more companies leaving the state due to the new rules, Mr. Schrap emphasizes the need for a balanced approach that considers both environmental goals and the trucking industry's well-being, which he said is essential to California's economy.
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Siyamak sits down with Chris Cooper, principal and regional managing director at Avison Young. He talks about what challenges downtown Los Angeles is facing today in the aftermath of the pandemic and the impact on the commercial real estate industry.
“I’m a third-generation Angeleno. We have a wonderful community.“ Mr. Cooper said. ”There are competing interests, but we can solve those problems by all taking a step back and really think through a way to attract people to come back to L.A., to reenergize that Renaissance that we had established before the pandemic.”
Mr. Cooper highlights the city’s previous success in creating a vibrant live-work-play environment and the setbacks caused by the pandemic. He emphasizes the need for a partnership between the private sector and city government to revive downtown Los Angeles. He also addresses the challenges posed by the homeless problem and the hybrid work strategies affecting commercial real estate.
Join us as we delve into the impact of the mansion tax on commercial real estate transactions and what Mr. Cooper says are its catastrophic effects on the industry. We also discuss the attractiveness of Los Angeles to foreign investors despite challenges like high taxes and regulations, attributing it to the city’s diverse economy and favorable lifestyle.
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Siyamak sits down with Jim Doti, president emeritus at Chapman University. Today he will talk about his latest findings on the California Exodus and provide some insights on the demographics of people who are leaving California, why they are leaving, and the outmigration’s impacts on California's job market and economy.
"Over the last five years, we've lost 1.2 million people. We did a survey of CEOs; over 50% say that they're thinking of relocating their operations, and that's why jobs increasingly are leaving the state. That's why California ranks number 49 in job growth. There's no greater loss to an economy than the loss of human capital, and that's what's happening,” Mr. Doti said.
In this interview, our guest offers insights into the recent revisions in migration numbers, revealing a concerning trend where over 300,000 more people have left California than those who have arrived in the past few years. He shares his observations on the updated estimates by the Department of Finance of California, signaling a significant outflow that poses challenges such as a growing deficit and perceived policy inertia in Sacramento.
Our guest sheds light on the challenges faced by the state, from fiscal deficits to concerns about job growth. The discussion emphasizes the impact on high-paying jobs, particularly in advanced industries, where California historically held a strong position but now faces growing competition from low-tax states.
Mr. Doti also navigates the complexities surrounding housing affordability and anticipates potential changes in housing dynamics as the outflow continues. As the looming budget deficit comes into focus, the conversation explores the available options for state leaders and contemplates the potential consequences of policy decisions.
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Siyamak sits down with John Cruikshank, mayor of Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County. He will discuss the challenges facing California cities regarding the state housing mandate and the potential problems of government overreach when it comes to improving housing affordability.
“Right now the policymakers up in Sacramento don’t trust the cities to do their job. And so now they’re using the stick or lawsuits to force us into complying with what they have visioned for California,” Mr. Cruikshank said. “We’re doing this for affordability, but when you start off with already very expensive land, it never pencils out; it would never work.”
- Visa fler
