Joe Rogan Experience #1657 - Mayor Steve Adler

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. SASteve Adler0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music plays) Thanks for doing this, man. Appreciate it.

   4. SASteve Adler0:16

      No, I appreciate being invited.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      What was it like being the mayor of Austin?

   6. SASteve Adler0:19

      You know, it's a- it's a- it's a real trip.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:22

      (laughs)

   8. SASteve Adler0:22

      Uh. (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:22

      If you could go back and do it again, would you?

   10. SASteve Adler0:25

       I, uh, I keep, I keep reminding Dianne that we volunteered to do this.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       (laughs)

   12. SASteve Adler0:29

       Yeah. I mean, 'cause there's so many things about it that are, that are spectacular. Um, but it is also the most frustrating thing I've ever done.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       Have you ever done anything in public service before this?

   14. SASteve Adler0:40

       Not in any kind of elected office.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       What m- what, what gave you the motivation to do it?

   16. SASteve Adler0:45

       You know, I was in and around politics, uh, but, um, you know, I've worked on some campaigns. I had a friend who became a state senator and I took some time off helping him set up his office. I think, you know, really it was, uh, you know, literally the- the city had been real good to me. Uh, you know, I came here as a pretty poor student passing through town, never left. Stayed here for the music and the breakfast tacos.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:11

       (laughs)

   18. SASteve Adler1:12

       And, you know, 40 years later it's, uh, yeah, I've achieved so many things that I didn't even know existed, and it was a chance to, to give back. This is the classic case of no good deed goes unpunished.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:25

       (laughs) Well, and then, you know, uh, the way it stands now... It's such a strange time, right? Like, everything was fine. W- I mean, so many mayors across the country had, m- you know, you have your standard mayor problems. But then COVID hits and you have everything is exacerbated. And like, what- what- what kind of, like, massive change has this been for you?

   20. SASteve Adler1:48

       You know, it actually starts before that. You know, you, let's go back. We've had, we've had three 100-year storms in my seven years where people have died. We had a, um, a bridge wash out way north of here sending silt downstream and we ended up having to do a water boil in Austin. Uh, and this was at a time-

   21. JRJoe Rogan2:10

       Water boil mean people had to boil their tap water?

   22. SASteve Adler2:12

       Had... Yeah. You, you-

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:12

       So the processing wasn't working?

   24. SASteve Adler2:13

       In a city of a million people you couldn't drink the water. I mean, that never happens. But yet in my time as mayor in seven years it's happened twice. (laughs)

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:22

       (laughs)

   26. SASteve Adler2:22

       We had a, we had a bomber that was-

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:25

       Oh, yeah.

   28. SASteve Adler2:25

       ... putting bombs on people's porches. Mailing people and people were, were dying. Uh, you know, we had 1,000 law enforcement agents here in the city.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:35

       What... We were talking about that. What-

   30. SASteve Adler2:36

       And then COVID. I mean-
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Right. Well, you know,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      talking you could do and work things out, the better. You, the idea is you're supposed to be representing your constituents, right? That's, that's what everybody would hope. The best way to do that would be to communicate and see what's, what's a solution? How do we solve these problems?

   2. SASteve Adler15:12

      Right. Well, you know, you used an interesting word in your description, which was efficient.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:17

      Mm-hmm.

   4. SASteve Adler15:17

      You know, I, I come from private market, private sector, and efficiency is key to, to operating and running and, and the results that you make. In government, efficiency is not what is prioritized. In efficiency, uh, uh, engagement, uh, it has a, has a greater value, currency value. Um, uh, openness, transparency, uh, with government is a higher value. All of those things are not about efficiency. Uh, but, but that's the values that people have, have placed with, with government.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:58

      Under the premise that they're trying to avoid corruption?

   6. SASteve Adler16:01

      Correct.

   7. JRJoe Rogan16:02

      Um, so what were things that you wanted to get done that you haven't been able to get done?

   8. SASteve Adler16:08

      You know, I wanted to, uh, get a land development code rewrite in the city. O- one of the, you know, there are so many things that are going right about this city. Uh, you know, we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, an economy that's on fire. We are one of the safest big cities in the country from a public safety standpoint. Um, we're the fastest growing large metropolitan area and have been, I think, for, like, each of the last nine years. There are so many things that are happening right. But one of the things that, that follows from that is housing prices are just off the charts. Now, for somebody who's just coming here from California or from, from New York, it looks like deals. If you're living here, kinda like traffic. (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan16:50

      Mm-hmm.

   10. SASteve Adler16:51

       You get used to being able to get anywhere in 15 minutes. But housing prices in Austin is appreciating more rapidly, I think, in Austin right now than any other city in the country, which means we have to increase the housing supply in the city. But when you start talking about increasing the housing supply in the city, you immediately run into the culture wars on real estate development that you see in these neighborhoods. Uh, how do you increase density? How do you increase the number of units? How do you increase height? How do you increase the change, uh, so that you can increase housing supply? We were, that was, like, a big battle for years. Uh, we inherited that battle and the process. We were about seven days away, uh, from adopting a new land development code, and then the court stopped us. Uh, before-

   11. JRJoe Rogan17:40

       And what was the goal of this new land development code? Was the goal to increase density?

   12. SASteve Adler17:44

       It was to increase more housing supply in the city of all different kinds.

   13. JRJoe Rogan17:48

       Do you, do you get resistance from the residents, the current residents that don't want you to overbuild? They w- they don't want the neighborhood to change? Is that the idea?

   14. SASteve Adler17:54

       Y- you get resistance from neighbor- neighborhoods that are trying to preserve a certain quality of life or neighborhood character-

   15. JRJoe Rogan18:03

       Yeah.

   16. SASteve Adler18:03

       ... uh, that, that is, that's important to them.

   17. JRJoe Rogan18:06

       And is there a common ground or a middle ground rather? Like-

   18. SASteve Adler18:09

       I think so and, and, and before I leave my office, I hope, this summer, uh, uh, we're gonna be able to, to join with people that were on opposite sides, uh, a year and a half ago and say, "Okay, what is, what is it that is achievable? How much of what we need to do can we get done and get the, the votes for?" What the court said was in order for us to pass what we were doing, we needed a super majority to get it done. So on my, uh, our 11-person council, we needed nine votes as opposed to seven votes.

   19. JRJoe Rogan18:43

       Hm.

   20. SASteve Adler18:43

       There weren't nine votes.

   21. JRJoe Rogan18:45

       Now this is to increase, like, what, what is the actual, what, what, what is, what are you trying to achieve? Like, what is the actual stated goal?

   22. SASteve Adler18:54

       S- it's to increase the, the, the number of-... units of housing units that can build under our land development code.

   23. JRJoe Rogan19:03

       So for particular ... like, per acre?

   24. SASteve Adler19:05

       So it's like- Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan19:07

       So a certain amount of houses per acre?

   26. SASteve Adler19:09

       It depends on the area. Each area has its own rules.

   27. JRJoe Rogan19:12

       Mm-hmm.

   28. SASteve Adler19:12

       It begins with saying, "On commercial corridors where our zoning says you can just build commercially, we're gonna let people build residences there, too."

   29. JRJoe Rogan19:20

       Mm.

   30. SASteve Adler19:20

       So if you wanna put on a floor above the commercial use that's residential use, we're gonna do that. So we're gonna enlarge what you can build in a commercial area.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Yeah. …

   1. SASteve Adler30:00

      up.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      Yeah.

   3. SASteve Adler30:00

      You know? And in Seattle, San Francisco, smaller cities than Austin have three to six times as many people experiencing homelessness. You know, I was with the mayor in LA, uh, and I, and I said to him, I said, "God, I don't even know what you do. I mean, the scale of your challenge is so great. The cost to actually turn this around," I said, "I, I, I don't know what you do." And I said, "So I'm not here asking you what you do. But I'm asking you, what do you wish you had done eight years ago, 10 years ago, to prevent being where you are today?"

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:34

      What did he say?

   5. SASteve Adler30:34

      He gave me the same answer that the experts gave me in San Francisco and Portland and Seattle. They all said, "If you hide this challenge, it's going to continue to grow until it is so big you can't hide it anymore. But at that point, it's going to be too big for you to actually meaningfully deal with it." They said it's... It is like the political issue right now in, in LA and in San Francisco. It's like-

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:59

      Yeah.

   7. SASteve Adler30:59

      ... important. The p- they said, "I wish that we were as resolved to fix it-"... eight, 10 years ago as we are today, because we would have been able to set up the systems so that we could have reached equilibrium. And now, we wouldn't be here.

   8. JRJoe Rogan31:14

      You've got places like San Francisco-

   9. SASteve Adler31:16

      (clears throat)

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       ... that have such tolerant policies towards homeless people that people gravitate to San Francisco to be homeless, which is really kind of crazy but true. People have actually moved there with the intention of, like, taking advantage of all their services, taking advantage of food and shelter, and the ability to do whatever you want. And, you know, you could actually get money for, for certain services in, in San Francisco. There's, like, a fine line between helping and encouraging people to continue a lifestyle. And, you know, for some people, the freedom of just being able to camp and do whatever you want, like, they're, they're checked out, right, for whatever reason, whether it's mental illness, whether it's just they pre- prefer this sort of vagabond lifestyle. I don't know whatev- what it is. But is there a l- like, is there a line that you have to make sure you don't cross over, where you don't make it easier for them to be homeless? You want to encourage them to take advantage of these things that you were trying to set up, where you're talking about providing them with wraparound services, where you can actually reintegrate them to society. Like, how do you make that distinction?

   11. SASteve Adler32:25

       Well, you know, so much of the debate and the discussion around homelessness has turned so political, like so many other kinds of discussions, but, but homelessness is, is one of the big ones. So, I have continued to ask the people that are working daily with the universe of people experiencing homelessness in our city, about 10,000 people in any given year intersect with our homelessness system, about 3,000 people on any given day in our city experiencing homelessness. And I've asked that question, "Are we pulling people in?" And what they tell me consistently, for the last six years, seven years, is that you can find anecdotally where that has happened. But generally speaking, the overwhelming number of people experiencing homelessness in our city are people who fell into homelessness here. The people that are coming into our city, most of them are coming from the areas immediately around us. I had one of them tell me once that there's not a, a, a Fodor's Guide to, to cities for people experiencing homelessness. And Austin would be in danger of going from two stars to three stars and people would start coming. We have enough challenge getting people experiencing homelessness to go from one side of the city to the other side of the city once they have a, have, have a place. Um, so where I'm looking at here, and I know that, that the governor, you know, Gavin Newsom in, in California, um, uh, told people that, uh, that Austin and Texas were giving people tickets and sending people to, to, to California.

   12. JRJoe Rogan34:03

       Did he say that?

   13. SASteve Adler34:04

       He said that. Not true-

   14. JRJoe Rogan34:06

       Is it?

   15. SASteve Adler34:06

       ... from ... I mean, I'm ... No.

   16. JRJoe Rogan34:08

       Wait a minute. That guy lied about something? That's crazy.

   17. SASteve Adler34:09

       That's what I hear. Uh, (laughs) but the, uh, um ... So-

   18. JRJoe Rogan34:15

       (laughs)

   19. SASteve Adler34:15

       So, I'm, I'm, I'm just ... You know, we, we just need to get-

   20. JRJoe Rogan34:18

       That's not how to handle it, right?

   21. SASteve Adler34:18

       We need to get people, we need to get people off the streets. So-

   22. JRJoe Rogan34:21

       So-

   23. SASteve Adler34:21

       ... what the council did was we said, um ... We, we made it work with veterans. And then I tried to scale up what we did with veterans, but I couldn't get the, the resolve to spend the money. And part of the reason was, is because people didn't see the challenge. So, there'd be some neighborhoods that were willing to do it. I knew as, as sure as the sun was gonna come up the next day that this was now accelerating in our city. So, what we said was, "We're gonna maintain the ordinances that say if you threaten public safety or public health, you can get arrested and ticketed and put in jail," 'cause that's important. If somebody's doing that, they should be arrested and ticketed and put in jail. But if they're not doing that, if all they're doing is surviving, then it is inhumane to either put that person in jail or to force that person to live down in the streams and in the woods, 'cause you, you k- it's an even un- worse place for them to be. So, we said-

   24. JRJoe Rogan35:20

       Why is it a worse place for them-

   25. SASteve Adler35:22

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan35:22

       ... to be camping in the woods than to be camping on a public street?

   27. SASteve Adler35:25

       Well, in ... Well, one, you don't want anybody camping in a public street either.

   28. JRJoe Rogan35:29

       Right.

   29. SASteve Adler35:29

       Right? So, that's not a solution to the challenge. You, you can't have that happen either. Uh, but if somebody is in the woods or down by the streams, they're not interacting with anybody else. So, you have, you have hundreds of women that are getting assaulted every night as the price to be able to live in that environment because they're, they're secluded and they're not safe. I've had-

   30. JRJoe Rogan35:56

       So, you mean if a homeless woman moves to the woods, she's in danger because there's no one around her to protect her.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Jesus. …

   1. SASteve Adler45:00

      start paying that bill sometimes and then not their car bill all the time, and then they lose their car. That causes friction in the, in the household. Things are getting, like, really ugly at this point. They don't have the car and one of them loses their job and then the next thing you know, spouse leaves with the kids, car's gone, uh, medi- the bill collector's still coming and then, and then person loses their apartment and they end up on the streets. And they raise their hand and they say, "I need help. I don't know who to call." 'Cause they literally have no one to call. And they say, "If you can just help me, help me for a month or two or three, I can right this ship and get back." If you can get them off the street and into a home with a job training program or even just stabilize them, get them what they need, real good chance they can get back into life. But if you ... The longer you leave them on the street, the longer they're there, the harder it's going to be for them to be able to pull back. The wait list right now in Austin for somebody in that situation who raises their hand is y- is, is like a year, year and a half to get to the living-

   2. JRJoe Rogan46:04

      Jesus.

   3. SASteve Adler46:04

      So we're creating a lot of the challenge that we, that, that we're dealing with 'cause we don't have the capacity. Uh, and, and that's been the frustration. But for the very, very first time, we actually have the agreement on the plan, the way we measure it over time, exactly what it's going to cost. We have the b- we have the resources from the federal government. I think we're having foundations now that are, uh, in discussions willing to, to, to, to step up and take a, a big piece of this. Before I leave office here in the next year and a half, my number one priority is to track this issue.

   4. JRJoe Rogan46:42

      Now, if you could, what would you do? Would you build large apartment structures? And e- when you do that, how do you connect that to, to guidance? Like, how do you connect that to counseling? How do you connect that to, you know, f- uh, healthy meals for these folks? How do you connect that to m- y- you know, someone who's going to give them counsel? Someone who's going to tell them, like, "Here's the steps that you need to take to get back on track. Let's work on this together. Here's your project. This is what you have to do today and this is what I'm going to do to help you."

   5. SASteve Adler47:16

      Ah, you don't, you don't create any living situation without already having those support services part of it. You don't do-

   6. JRJoe Rogan47:24

      So you don't just put them up in a hotel?

   7. SASteve Adler47:26

      No.

   8. JRJoe Rogan47:26

      No.

   9. SASteve Adler47:26

      It wouldn't w- it wouldn't work.

   10. JRJoe Rogan47:28

       Right. Right.

   11. SASteve Adler47:29

       And there are lots of different models about what that could w- look like. So we're, we're buying now some motels, hotels, uh, because it's, it's, it's cheaper and better for taxpayers to do that, uh, than it is to, to build something new. We're working with developers in the city that have a track record of success. We have people like, uh, Mobile Loaves & Fishes and Alan Graham that have built small kind of communities of, of mini homes. I mean, there are lots of different ways and, and the people that are doing this, again, are like 90, 95% successful. I don't know what you do, Joe, about, about, about poverty. I don't know what you do about racial dispar- I mean, uh, uh, uh, wealth disparities among ... on racial lines. I mean, there are some issues that are societal issues that are so big, I don't know what you do with. But homelessness, we know exactly what works and it's purely a question of, is a community serious enough about putting the resources against it to fix it?

   12. JRJoe Rogan48:30

       Has any community brought homelessness back from, like, uh, uh, uh, a very high level to a much more manageable level? Has anyone been successful?

   13. SASteve Adler48:41

       Houston, just down the street-

   14. JRJoe Rogan48:43

       Houston.

   15. SASteve Adler48:43

       ... is real successful. So but, but Houston did, is they started doing this 20 years ago.

   16. JRJoe Rogan48:47

       Mm-hmm.

   17. SASteve Adler48:48

       So 20 years ago, they went to HUD in DC and they said, "We want to start building and buying places for people to go. We're gonna give them services 'cause we think this will work." And HUD supported them, like, as a pilot program and it was successful. So every year they've gotten more and more-

   18. JRJoe Rogan49:04

       What does HUD stand for?

   19. SASteve Adler49:05

       Housing and Urban Development. It's one of the cabinet offices in DC. So they, they, they, uh, um, got funding. They were successful. So every year, they've gotten more and more funding. So every year, I think this past year recently, they got over $40 million. I think Dallas was, like, at 11 and Austin was, like, at three.What we need to do in Austin is what Houston did over the last 20 years. We need to do it over the next three years. I mean, it works. But it's going to be more expensive for us in the next three, uh, years or so-

   20. JRJoe Rogan49:37

       Yeah.

   21. SASteve Adler49:38

       ... than it is in Houston. But once you get there, once you set up a system, because people move in... You know, o- one, you divert as many people as you can before they get to that place. Once they... if they get past the diversion you didn't diversion, then you get them into some kind of rapid re-housing, emergency housing, exiting them to permanent supportive housing, hopefully exiting them back, um, to, to, to, to society. And then you keep filling, backfilling those spots. Then, uh, if... once you reach equilibrium in that system, then, then, then it, then it doesn't cost. L.A. budget this year, did you see that? The L.A. line item for homelessness this year in their budget, a billion dollars.

   22. JRJoe Rogan50:19

       (laughs)

   23. SASteve Adler50:20

       A billion dollars. I don't even know what you do. I mean, it's crazy.

   24. JRJoe Rogan50:25

       And guess what? It's not gonna do anything.

   25. SASteve Adler50:27

       It... And it won't.

   26. JRJoe Rogan50:28

       It won't.

   27. SASteve Adler50:29

       Their numbers are so big that it won't set up their systems.

   28. JRJoe Rogan50:32

       It's insane, yeah. It... And then it becomes just massive bureaucracy and nothing gets done. The problem with a place like L.A. is that it's too big and there's too many people and it's just not gonna get done. And that's the one thing that I look at Austin, I go, "This might work." Like, you can kind... It seems like you can kind of manage things way better when you're dealing with a million people than when you're dealing with, you know, whatever Los Angeles has now. When you're talking about 3,000 homeless folks, how many counselors do you need? How many people do you need working on this problem? How many... Like, you're obviously gonna need folks that are experts in helping people rehabilitate and getting back into society. And you're gonna deal with a bunch of different kinds of scenarios. Some people have extreme mental health issues. Some people have drug addictions. Some people are like the story that you just laid out earlier, just a bunch of things happen, the perfect storm, and they wind up being homeless.

   29. SASteve Adler51:32

       So the plan that... So, so our Chamber of Commerce got together with our criminal justice advocacy group and, and, and I've watched them over the last five years be at town hall meetings where they argue with each other over what it is that's supposed to happen. Uh, they, they, they engaged in a facilitated conversation. Chamber, D.A., Downtown Austin Alliance, ECHO, the umbrella organization, a facilitated conversation. They invited me to participate. It felt like a marriage counseling session. And what they, what they... (laughs) They brought in an outside person, uh, and they were trying to come up with a small exercise project that they could do together to build trust. And what became apparent when they were actually got in the room with the facilitator is they could agree on what it was that was the whole plan from, from, from A to Z. Uh, they couldn't fund it, but they could agree on what the plan was. But the fact that they could agree on it was the first time I had seen that in, in my lifetime in this city. Uh, and then more and more people started surrounding that and saying, "You know, if they're going to agree that this is the right way to go, then, then we ought to figure out how to fund this thing." And that's where we are right now. So that plan that they came up with, with the facilitator, by the way, one of the architects of the practice in Houston came in, and I think that it said that they have to increase their capacity of people to do the kind of casework that you're talking about by about 250 people.

   30. JRJoe Rogan53:09

       So they bring in about 250 counselors/rehab experts/job specialists, people that can help these people become gainfully employed, people that can help these people clean up, and then what, what could be done to incentivize these people? Like, could... I- i- is it giving them hope in the sense of, like, uh, marking progress and making a, you know, making a, like, a show of it, like saying, "This is fantastic. Look what we've doing. We're all working together. I know everybody here is down and out or you're in a situation where you'd rather be in a better situation. We can all help. And look at these examples of ways we've done it and look at these examples of people who've been like you, who've gone through this program and are now happy, normal members of society." And maybe some of those folks can even come back and help and offer counseling and maybe even speak to these people and say, "Hey, I was in the position that you were in and we can all get out of this together."
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00

   Right. Get them out…

   1. SASteve Adler1:00:00

      the- there's the one group of people who say, "I am only concerned about the aesthetics of this issue."

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:06

      Right. Get them out of here.

   3. SASteve Adler1:00:07

      "This is none of my challenge."

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:08

      Right.

   5. SASteve Adler1:00:08

      "I don't want to see it."

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      Right.

   7. SASteve Adler1:00:09

      "Put it somewhere where I don't have to deal with it." Not... I mean, just make it go away. And then there are the people that are only concerned about, um, um, taking care of people, and they- and they don't believe that, uh, there is a need to- to- to manage shared public spaces in a way that actually preserves for the public the use of public spaces.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:32

      Yeah.

   9. SASteve Adler1:00:33

      They're only concerned about the person experiencing homelessness. What I have found in our city is that there are... While those two extremes exist, almost everybody in this city has some of both. They- they don't want to see it.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:46

       Yeah.

   11. SASteve Adler1:00:47

       And there's got to be a better answer to it. But they want you... In a city that has so much going for it, as much resources as this city has, we ought to be able to solve for this in a way that we're proud of.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:58

       Yeah. Uh, it's almost like... I wish there was like a contest where people from around the country or around the city or wherever it would be could come in, and like there would be a prize if you could turn any of these 250 people into working, productive members of society. Figure out how to clean them up, counsel them. I wonder what could be done if there was like real incentive, you know? If like, say, if there was like a million dollar prize for whoever could take these people and turn them... Turn... Whether it's a small number of them or even just one-... take a person who's completely down and out and look, and just go over their record, look at their, what, what's happened in their life. It seems like it could be done with enough resources and attention. You could change people's lives. But could you ch- you know, like how much would that cost? And would it be ... If you're thinking about $250,000 a year for each one of these people? That's what you're saying?

   13. SASteve Adler1:01:59

       220. Yes.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:01:59

       $220,000 a year. It seems like you pay someone $100,000 a year just to f- babysit these fucking people. You'd save $120,000 (laughs) a year and you might be able to fix it. Like some of these people, it's, there's gotta be a way to get through to them. People can change. It's really hard. But they can change if you get enough attention and enough motivation, you hit the right frequency with them, talk to them in a way that resonates with them, give them like manageable goals that they could sort of get momentum going and start recognizing that, "Oh, if I do these things and continue to do these things, I can actually live a better and healthier and happier life." It seems like-

   15. SASteve Adler1:02:41

       Helljer, I'll vote for you.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:02:43

       Yeah. (laughs)

   17. SASteve Adler1:02:44

       And, and (laughs) and, and, and I would love to see that and, and, and there's gotta be, has to be more and more of that because what Austin is dealing with right now is not very dissimilar from what's happening in a lot of cities around the country right now. They're just not dealing with it.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:02:59

       Yeah.

   19. SASteve Adler1:03:00

       Which means like in another four to six to eight years, what you're seeing happening in LA is gonna start happening in, in many, many more bigger cities around the country.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:03:09

       And less steps are taken to mitigate it.

   21. SASteve Adler1:03:11

       'Cause they're, 'cause people aren't.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:03:12

       Yeah.

   23. SASteve Adler1:03:12

       They're hiding it. They're, they're letting it ple- in places people don't see. It's gotta come out. This is a national issue.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:03:19

       Yeah.

   25. SASteve Adler1:03:19

       And then my hope is, well I would love to happen- have it happen today, but at some point in the next, you know, four to six to eight years, uh, it's gotta be that, that nationally the government's stepping into this and saying, "We've gotta, this is an emergency. We've gotta fix this."

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:03:36

       Yeah, it seems like it has to be e- e- a- and there's this thing that people want personal accountability, they want people to just go and figure things out on their own. But it has to be recognized that different people start off in life at different places. This idea that we, we all have equal opportunity is nonsense. It's just not the case. And so if e- equal opportunity doesn't exist, you can't have equal ex- expectations. You just can't. Some people come from horrific abuse and j- drug-abused families and, uh, violence and crime and they're, they're just, they didn't start at the same spot as you or I. They, they got unlucky with where their, their station in life is. And as a community, uh, the compassionate thing to do is to try to give those people a hand, reach out, give them a hand. But it's like how much? How much do you do? And how much is it, how much are you doing where you're just enabling and encouraging people? You don't want these sort of like really, uh, overly progressive programs that ultimately do more harm than good because they just enable people to continue to live this life. You wanna kinda guide them, right?

   27. SASteve Adler1:04:50

       Right. And, and, and what the studies show is that most of these people, and it is not everybody, but most of these people, if you can give them a key to a room, they will take that room rather than being out on the street so long as they can bring their pet or their girlfriend, uh, so long as they're not being asked to, to do another 10-point program 'cause they've done 20 of those and they're just not gonna do that again. But if you can get some into a place where they're safer and then get them the services, you'd be surprised at the number of people, the success rate of getting people to stabilize themselves. Uh, and then there's just dignity in work. There's, there's dignity in community. There's, when you start giving people back that measure of dignity, that's what, that's what most all of these people want. Not everybody. There are, you know, but, but most all do.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:05:51

       Yeah. And you gotta have, I guess, different plans in place for different kinds of problems, right? Different plans in place for the people-

   29. SASteve Adler1:05:58

       Right.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:05:58

       ... with mental health issues, different plans in place for the people who are drug addicts.
6. 1:15:00 – 1:17:45

   Picks you out. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:15:00

      you should just die now because there's a disease floating around that, you know-

   2. SASteve Adler1:15:04

      Picks you out.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:15:05

      ... mis- ... Yeah, it just, for whatever reason, it, it finds people like that, and it's much more dangerous to them. Did- was there any- ever a time where you guys decided or thought ab- about some kind of a program put together to try to get people to e- to exercise and to eat better and to supplement with vitamins? Because those are the steps that we've shown to absolutely help in increasing the potency of your immune system.

   4. SASteve Adler1:15:32

      And, and I think, you know, cities need to play in that space. Uh, that's why we've, we've really, uh, put resources against the running trail a- around Lake Austin.

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:15:41

      Mm-hmm.

   6. SASteve Adler1:15:42

      You know, there are, you know, tens of thousands of people that are, that are on there all the time. You know, we do pretty big programs with the employees, city, so, you know, 14,000 people. And then we, you know, encourage kind of contests and motivational stuff with other large employers in the, in the city.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:16:01

      Is there something you could do, though, to get the word out about that to the rest of the population, just to let people know? I mean, particularly things about, like, vitamin D supplementation, which you really ... You don't get vitamin D unless you get it from the sun or you supplement it. Those are the only two options. And one of the studies showed that out of the people that were in the ICU for COVID, 84% of them had insufficient levels of vitamin D. It has a tremendous impact on your immune system. Like, just telling people to supplement with vitamin D would have a tr- a huge impact on people's health and immune system. Getting people to take multivitamins, d- getting people to drink more water, getting people to cut a lot of crap and processed foods out of their diet. All these things, you know, could be promoted, and really should be at a time like this, where it really does make a big impact on who lives or dies.

   8. SASteve Adler1:16:46

      Yeah, we should have been doing a better job of that. We should be doing a better job of that. You know, if this pandemic's told us anything, it's, it's this, this virus sought out people with comorbidities.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:16:57

      Yes.

   10. SASteve Adler1:16:57

       This virus sought out people. Y- you know, not everybody. There were some healthy people that got really sick too. There were really healthy people who died. Um, but by and large, the, the lesson of taking care of yourself really shown to be true in this c- this, this virus.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:17:14

       Did you do anything different with yourself over this past year, recognizing that i- it does make you more vulnerable?

   12. SASteve Adler1:17:20

       You know, I should have been doing more than I, than I was. You know, I, I ended up creating a little studio like this, you know (laughs) , right off of my bed, and I'm not sure I ever moved very much from the, from the, from the screen. I mean, it's been really hard this past year to

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:17:34

       You've mostly been working remotely?

   14. SASteve Adler1:17:36

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:17:36

       Yeah. Well, listen, man, you don't have an easy job. It's thankless. It's very difficult. But you're the mayor of one of the best cities.

Episode duration: 1:18:28