Joe Rogan Experience #2268 - Rick Caruso

Rick Caruso 0:00 (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (instrumental music plays) Good to see you, sir.

Rick Caruso 0:14 Thanks for having me.

Joe Rogan 0:15 My pleasure.

Rick Caruso 0:15 Great to be here.

Joe Rogan 0:15 Thanks for being here. Uh, it is a, uh, terrible time for Los Angeles.

Rick Caruso 0:20 Yup.

Joe Rogan 0:20 And, uh, unfortunately, uh, you did not win. I wanted you to win.

Rick Caruso 0:25 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 0:25 I was rooting for you.

Rick Caruso 0:26 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 0:27 Uh, it's just, the politics in LA are, it's- it's almost like watching people who are in a cult, who are being confronted by the cult experts who are telling them, "Hey, this is all crazy and fake, and you're- you're ruining your life." And they're like, "No, no, no, I think it's gonna work out." (laughs)

Rick Caruso 0:45 (laughs) Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things that aren't working out.

Joe Rogan 0:47 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 0:47 There's a lot of things that are. I mean, listen, I know like you, being, spending time and living in LA, it's an amazing city.

Joe Rogan 0:54 It's amazing.

Rick Caruso 0:55 And when I ran for office, as much as I loved LA, I actually fell in love with it more because I got to see places that I wouldn't normally see. And so it was really amazing, and people, and the diversity and the dear-ness of so many neighborhoods and people. But what's happened to LA over the last decade is just tragic, and people are paying huge consequences for it and, um, it's sad to watch.

Joe Rogan 1:23 So, if you get to the heart of it, like if you did, if you won and you became the mayor of LA, what could you do to try to turn this battleship around? 'Cause it's a big battleship.

Rick Caruso 1:35 It's a big battleship and people will argue that the mayor of LA doesn't have a lot of authority, like other mayors. Um, you know, I learned a lot, Joe. I worked for three mayors. I worked for Tom Bradley when I was in my mid-20s as a commissioner. I was the head of Department of Water and Power. I worked for Dick Riordan. He brought me back into head of DWP during the energy crisis. Uh, the department was under a lot of financial strain. And then I worked for Jim Hahn, who brought me in to turn around LAPD and I was the police commissioner, the head of the Police Commission. So I've seen really good leadership. Um, and honestly what we've had in the last two mayors is not good leadership and we're paying a price for it. So you may not have a lot of power, but actually, I think the most powerful thing you can have that I learned as a police commissioner, if you're not worried about getting reelected or reappointed, it's really amazing what can happen.

Joe Rogan 2:32 (laughs)

Rick Caruso 2:32 'Cause you can make decisions that are actually in the best interest of the people and I believe that career politicians are always worried about getting reelected. They are scared to death of getting a real job. They've never had to sign the front of a check, only the back, so it's very difficult for them to even think about being out of office, so they just circulate. You know, they go from the city council to the state assembly to the state senate, and we end up with the same sort of look and feel of leadership, which is pretty weak. Um, I think Dick Riordan was a good example of a guy who came in and did a lot of great stuff. I actually think Jimmy Hahn did a lot of great stuff, uh, as mayor. So I would go in there with some strong leadership. I would certainly go in there and reach across the aisle and find common ground and all of those things you need to do to move forward, but I would certainly plant some really strong goals that everybody knew we were working f- working towards 'cause, you know, I believe that you either lead, follow, or get out of the way. And I really admire people who lead, and, um, I wouldn't mind being a little bit controversial if it's in the interest of doing what's in the best interest of the residents.

Joe Rogan 3:47 Well, that's what I enjoyed about your campe- campaign, and that's what I was really hopeful about is that it seemed like you were not running for mayor because you wanted to be the mayor.

Rick Caruso 3:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 3:57 You w- you were running for mayor because you're a businessman and you realized that this was not being run like a successful business.

Rick Caruso 4:02 Right.

Joe Rogan 4:03 And you knew how to run a successful business.

Rick Caruso 4:04 Right.

Joe Rogan 4:04 You knew the difference. And LA is just constantly plagued by this crony poli- political movement. This- these- the same people, same type of people shuffling in and out.

Rick Caruso 4:18 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:18 And it just, nothing ever changes.

Rick Caruso 4:20 Yeah. And again, to give you a little bit of background, I am so indebted to LA. It sounds a little bit corny, but you know, my paternal and maternal grandparents, they were both immigrants. My- my grandfather, paternal grandfather was a gardener in Los Angeles. He lived in Boyle Heights. He started as a, as a coal miner. He actually probably had one of the worst jobs you could ever have in life. When he immigrated here to a little town called Uniontown, Pennsylvania, he was the dynamiter. He was the guy that had to go in the lead.

Joe Rogan 4:51 Oh, boy.

Rick Caruso 4:52 Yeah, set the dynamite and get the hell out in time. And his brother, who immigrated with him, said, "Come to LA. It's sunny." My- my dad was actually born in a coal mining camp, uh, outside the coal mine. But anyway, he was a gardener out here and we actually grew up in his truck as he would go around and had, they had this small little home they rented in- in Boyle Heights. And I think about what LA gave to my grandparents, to my dad, to me, my family, the opportunity to build a business. And so running for mayor, the motivation was, I wanna give back to the city that gave me so much. And by the way, all the problems that we've got, you can fix 'em with a little bit of backbone, a little bit of smarts, if you're equipped right, bring together some really smart people, you can fix everything. And to your point, what happened when I was tied, uh, at the end of the race and actually a little bit ahead, you know, Biden flies in to campaign, Kamala flies in to campaign.... Pelosi, Bernie, and at the end of the day when we're 10 days before Election Day, they finally convinced Obama to, uh, do a message. And so the system is so... It's a closed loop, right? And the idea that somebody was gonna come in the tent that's an outsider was horrifying to him. And, you know, we would laugh about it as a family. It's like, you might as well just load up Air Force One all at one time and bring everybody out.

Joe Rogan 6:32 Right.

Rick Caruso 6:33 But I loved every minute of it. Um, and, you know, I hope at some point, that system's changing. And I think people are getting more frustrated lately and they're looking for people who are competent rather than just people who may share ideology.

Joe Rogan 6:51 All right. It's February and by now, 80% of people have probably abandoned their New Year's resolutions, and it makes sense. Life can get crazy and all of a sudden, you don't have the time. But one easy habit to stick with is AG1. It's an easy, realistic habit that you can make to benefit your whole body health. AG1 makes hard-to-get micronutrients easy to get and replaces multiple vitamins and supplements with just one scoop. You just mix it in some cold water, take a nice moment in the morning to do your body right. And honestly, it tastes pretty good. It's not easy to pack this many high-quality ingredients with this much nutrient density, but AG1 makes it happen without added sugars or artificial sweeteners ever. AG1 is a great way to invest in your health now and in the long run, which is why I've partnered with them for so long. Try AG1 and get a free bottle of vitamin D3, K2, and five free AG1 travel packs with your first subscription at DrinkAG1.com/JoeRogan. That's a $76 value gift for free when you go to DrinkAG1.com/JoeRogan. Check it out. Well, you saw the difference in the California electoral map, right?

Rick Caruso 8:01 Yeah. For sure.

Joe Rogan 8:01 And the, the difference between 2020 and 2024, how many different counties went red-

Rick Caruso 8:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:07 ... that were blue historically. It... L- So let's break down the problems with LA and what could be done to fix 'em. What do you, what do you see as, like, the primary issues of LA right now?

Rick Caruso 8:19 Well, you know, you got a homeless problem that continues to grow.

Joe Rogan 8:24 So let's talk about that.

Rick Caruso 8:25 Okay. 70,000 people in LA County.

Joe Rogan 8:27 One of the things we've covered on that, it's, uh, it's at least 70,000, I mean, I don't-

Rick Caruso 8:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:31 ... if they have a real accurate count. But the real question is why, and why is so much money spent on it and no results? We've, we've covered it on this podcast.

Rick Caruso 8:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:42 That there's people that are bureaucrats that work for this-

Rick Caruso 8:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:46 ... Department of Homelessness and they're making quarter million dollars a year.

Rick Caruso 8:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:50 And they have no incentive whatsoever to make anything better because it doesn't hurt them.

Rick Caruso 8:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 8:54 They're not paid based on whether or not they clean up the homeless issue.

Rick Caruso 8:57 That's right.

Joe Rogan 8:57 They're just paid.

Rick Caruso 8:58 That's right.

Joe Rogan 8:58 So the longer the homeless issue goes on, the more they keep their job.

Rick Caruso 9:02 Right.

Joe Rogan 9:03 And it's a profitable job.

Rick Caruso 9:04 Yep.

Joe Rogan 9:04 And they just rant on and on about, "We need housing." Like, that's not the problem.

Rick Caruso 9:10 But you know, I had a plan and I, I, I'm confident my plan would've worked. Let, let's talk about housing for a minute. LA and LA County, they put in a tax called HHH, um, to build 10,000 units. At least about a year ago, I think they had maybe short of 1,000 units built. And-

Joe Rogan 9:33 That's amazing in itself.

Rick Caruso 9:33 Over 10 years. Over 10 years.

Joe Rogan 9:35 (laughs) I'm amazed they built one.

Rick Caruso 9:36 Yeah, I know. But you know what they built them for? 800,000 a unit.

Joe Rogan 9:42 Wow.

Rick Caruso 9:42 That was the cost of it. If you go to the, if you go to the, the sector, the nonprofit sector that's actually doing amazing work with the homeless, like down on Skid Row, ground zero, they're building on average 300,000 a unit. But what happens in the city and the government, there's so many layers of waste on top of waste, on top of waste. It's ridiculous. So yeah, you're right. Very little is happening. Almost no housing is being built by the government even though they have massive taxes. We got another tax called ULA. When you sell your home, you have to pay another 5% over $5 million. So there's taxes on top of taxes. There's... There is a solution to the homeless. So let's give-

Joe Rogan 10:24 Okay.

Rick Caruso 10:24 I'll just give you an example. There's a company called Boxabl outside of Vegas and they're building units that are five, 600 square feet. On average, they're about 60, 70,000 a unit. This young guy figured out how to build a, basically a production line to knock these things out. And when I was campaigning, I said to him, "When I win, I'm gonna give you a contract for 30,000 units." And we're... There's so much open space, Joe, in and around Los Angeles that's controlled by the city and we're gonna start getting people in homes, getting 'em taken care of, giving them the service they need. But the other thing we need to do, you can't have open drug dealing on the streets. We welcome it. And if you look around MacArthur Park, the great old Langer's Deli-

Joe Rogan 11:11 Right.

Rick Caruso 11:11 ... and the poor owner, Norm Langers, who basically said, "After 70 years, I gotta close my-"

Joe Rogan 11:17 Terrible.

Rick Caruso 11:17 ... "my restaurant." It's terrible.

Joe Rogan 11:18 Terrible. Amazing old place.

Rick Caruso 11:19 And then, you know, Mayor Bass promised, "I'm gonna be down there. I'm gonna clean it up. We're gonna fix it."

Joe Rogan 11:24 Nothing.

Rick Caruso 11:24 Hasn't changed in six months since she said that. It can be cleaned up. It can be fixed. You gotta have some backbone.

Joe Rogan 11:31 It's, uh... A, a lot of it is a mental health issue, correct?

Rick Caruso 11:34 Very much so. Probably half. And drug addiction.

Joe Rogan 11:37 Drug addiction, a lot of that comes-

Rick Caruso 11:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:39 ... from mental health issues-

Rick Caruso 11:40 Yep.

Joe Rogan 11:40 ... as well, right?

Rick Caruso 11:41 Yes.

Joe Rogan 11:41 So what could be done? I mean, you're, you're dealing with an enormous population of people that have this issue. It's probably closer to 100,000 in LA County.

Rick Caruso 11:49 Maybe.

Joe Rogan 11:50 Could... I mean, that's-

Rick Caruso 11:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:51 ... the, the high estimates, right?

Rick Caruso 11:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 11:53 So let's say 70,000 to 100,000 people. You have a lot of people. What could be done to, um, have some sort of a, a large program that gets real results-

Rick Caruso 12:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:03 ... with helping these people with their mental health issues and helping these people with their drug addition issues?

Rick Caruso 12:10 I think you start first by enforcing the law and don't allow the sale of drugs on the street, and holding the drug dealers accountable.

Joe Rogan 12:16 Not just the sale, but the open use. I mean, meth, c- cooking meth right out-

Rick Caruso 12:20 All, all, all three, you're right.

Joe Rogan 12:21 ... in front of everybody.

Rick Caruso 12:22 All the above. I mean-

Joe Rogan 12:22 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 12:24 Literally in, in downtown, there's tents that are run by the drug dealers where everybody knows to go to get their drugs.

Joe Rogan 12:31 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 12:31 So, you gotta start there. But I'm a big believer that government alone can't solve major problems, right?

Joe Rogan 12:38 Right.

Rick Caruso 12:39 And you've got organizations downtown that are really doing great stuff. Um, Downtown Women's Center is doing great stuff. Union Rescue Mission, great stuff. And they're bringing people in. They're giving them the help and the treatment they need for drug addiction and mental healthcare, and they're giving them housing. Scale those people up. Take the dollars we're spending and wasting on the city trying to do it, and start pushing dollars to organizations that have a proven track record of success. And their success, Joe, is like a 90% success rate. And scale it. Why go reinvent a model that's already working well? And there's probably a dozen organizations downtown that are doing a good job.

Joe Rogan 13:20 And what are they doing?

Rick Caruso 13:21 And you do it at a fraction of the cost. Sorry to interrupt you.

Joe Rogan 13:23 What are these-

Rick Caruso 13:23 Do it at a fraction of the cost.

Joe Rogan 13:24 No, please. These people that are being successful, what, how are they doing it? What are they, what's their method?

Rick Caruso 13:28 You know, it's, like, I'm not the expert in it, but when I went down there and spent time during the campaign and since then, 'cause we've been supportive of their efforts as a family, they actually welcome people as they are. No judgment. Downtown Women's Center, tonight in Los Angeles there'll be about 20,000 women that will go to sleep on the street, and the majority of those women will in some form or fashion be abused, sexually abused, right? It's terrible that we allow this. It's a crime we allow this. But an example of Downtown Women's Center, they, they accept them the way they are, mental health condition, drug addiction condition. They have embedded services downtown in, um, their facility. They have housing there for them, and they give them the treatment. And it's happening in real time, and they're very effective doing it. Like I said, they've got about a 90% success rate. So, they have highly educated, skilled workers that know how to react and deal with the people on the street. That's what we need more of. I don't think you need to b- build new big institutions. What I do think you need to do is cut all the red tape, start building quickly, funding these organizations, and fund them quickly. If you talk to Downtown Women's Center, it will take them an average of six years to build new housing. Six years.

Joe Rogan 14:52 That's crazy.

Rick Caruso 14:53 It's crazy. And it's in Skid Row. It's not like you're building-

Joe Rogan 14:57 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 14:57 ... in a sensitive environmental area.

Joe Rogan 14:59 Right.

Rick Caruso 15:00 Right?

Joe Rogan 15:00 Right.

Rick Caruso 15:01 Give the damn permits and say go.

Joe Rogan 15:03 I first encountered Skid Row when we used to film Fear Factor downtown.

Rick Caruso 15:07 Oh. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:07 And I, you know, I'd heard of it. I had no idea. And we were driving, we, we, we, we had done a bunch of the Fear Factor stunts in, uh, abandoned buildings.

Rick Caruso 15:15 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:15 You know, it makes good backdrops.

Rick Caruso 15:17 Sure.

Joe Rogan 15:18 Creepy. Um, and when I went there, one time I took a wrong turn. And, uh, I went, like, right into the meat of everything. And I was like, "This is insanity." And this was 2004? 2003?

Rick Caruso 15:32 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:33 So this is 20 years ago, 22 years ago. And even back then, it was bananas. And-

Rick Caruso 15:38 Come see it now.

Joe Rogan 15:40 Oh, I've heard. Well, we watched that documentary, is it the Carlyle Hotel, Jimmy?

Rick Caruso 15:44 I think so.

Joe Rogan 15:45 One of the, the documentaries on the, one of the old downtown, uh, hotels. And it went into the history of Skid Row and that what Skid Row was, they would take people, they would arrest them for being vagrants somewhere else and they'd bring them to Skid Row and just leave them there and basically box them in.

Rick Caruso 16:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 16:01 And leave them in this area. And they had, you know-

Rick Caruso 16:04 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:04 ... soup kitchens-

Rick Caruso 16:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:05 ... and places-

Rick Caruso 16:06 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:06 ... where they could get food, and they were allowed to just sleep on the street, and so they just stayed there. And so they essentially, instead of fixing this problem of homeless people-

Rick Caruso 16:13 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:13 ... and mentally ill people, they just pushed them into this one area.

Rick Caruso 16:16 That's right.

Joe Rogan 16:16 And they said, "Let's just b- you know, we got a, a spot we can just stick them. Let's take it here."

Rick Caruso 16:20 We can turn our back on it.

Joe Rogan 16:21 And then, of course, every business in that area got devastated.

Rick Caruso 16:24 Yep.

Joe Rogan 16:24 All those hotels is g- glorious old classic hotels. I mean, in f- in fact the Morrison Hotel just caught fire-

Rick Caruso 16:31 That's right.

Joe Rogan 16:31 ... because vagrants were living in it. And it's gone now.

Rick Caruso 16:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:34 Um, so these methods that these people are using that are successful, what are they? What are they doing?

Rick Caruso 16:42 Well, what they're doing is they're giving them the treatment they need. Now Union Rescue Mission is, has a different approach. Union Rescue Mission, you know, that's a faith-based organization.

Joe Rogan 16:50 Okay.

Rick Caruso 16:51 Hugely successful. It's overflowing. They can't accommodate everybody. That, they need a lot more funding. But they don't allow anybody to use drugs or alcohol the minute they check in and they get an apartment. The other organizations that I'm aware of allow them to continue that, but they're required to go on programs to get off the drugs, to get the mental healthcare that they need. So they have skilled workers. They, they're literally daily classes, there's protocols, there's requirements of the residents on what they can do and what they can't do.

Joe Rogan 17:24 To give them structure.

Rick Caruso 17:25 They give them structure, that's right. They gi- that's a great word. You're exactly right. They give them structure, they give them training, they give them hope. And they give them a path forward. I've always said this. Let's assume your number's right. There's 100,000 homeless on the streets in LA County. Whatever the number is. People say you can't solve the whole problem. Why don't we start with solving half of it? Right?

Joe Rogan 17:49 That'd be nice.

Rick Caruso 17:49 Yeah. Let's start with... Let, let's solve for the f- the, the group of people that, for whatever reason are down and out, lost their job, lost their apartment, you've got more families on the streets now, Joe, than ever before. Let's start with that group and let's help them very quickly, give them training, give them a job, give them a path forward. And then you sort of work through the system. But we're not even doing that.... right? And so- and now you've had the fires. The estimate is there's another 180,000 people in LA that are homeless. Is that insane to think about?

Joe Rogan 18:30 It's insane. The, the 180,000 though, a lot of them, it's just because they're trying to find a place, but they're not destitute. These are... A lot of these people are people that had some money, you know.

Rick Caruso 18:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:42 Who knows what's gonna happen with insurance, right?

Rick Caruso 18:44 Right. But see, that's the problem.

Joe Rogan 18:45 Unfortunately, the fire insurance issue in, in Los Angeles is kind of insane.

Rick Caruso 18:49 It's terrible.

Joe Rogan 18:50 Where, you know, uh, we were talking in the lobby before, I was evacuated three times when I lived in LA. Um, two of my neighbors lost their homes, you know, and watching those folks cry i- in front of the rubble-

Rick Caruso 19:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:05 ... of where they lived is just... it's just horrible. You know, um, but they kept their lives and, you know, they... and this was 2018 and, you know, they rebuilt, some of them. Two, two of the houses are still gone (sniffs) in my old neighborhood.

Rick Caruso 19:20 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:21 They never rebuilt.

Rick Caruso 19:21 Sorry to hear about that.

Joe Rogan 19:22 They just, they just pulled out. It's just like, "What am I gonna do?" They lose everything. I mean, Me- Mel Gibson lost books from the 1600s.

Rick Caruso 19:29 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:30 You know, Mel is a very religious man-

Rick Caruso 19:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:32 ... and he c- collects, like, these ancient-

Rick Caruso 19:34 Mm.

Joe Rogan 19:34 ... irreplaceable books.

Rick Caruso 19:36 Wow.

Joe Rogan 19:37 And, and then, you know, of course, the loss of lives is horrifying. Um, that issue is an issue that has plagued LA and California forever. Uh, so a, a big, uh, point of contention during the election and even during the first Trump administration was the use of water.

Rick Caruso 19:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:56 And that water was being funneled into the Pacific Ocean and now, apparently... You could tell me more. You probably know more than I do. What has been done about that water? 'Cause it seems like Trump has changed that.

Rick Caruso 20:07 Well, I think what Trump did a good job of... First of all, I'm grateful for the, for the fact that he flew out, had a meeting, and I'm grateful. And, you know, I have my differences from time to time on some issues with him, but he sat down and he was forceful in a very strong way of holding the elected officials accountable, like, "Get the people back in their homes now." So the fact that in this tragedy, we've got a president who's also a builder, who understands what needs to be done, I think is great. And I, I hope he continues to hold all the elected officials accountable. He can make a big difference. And it... we need it. On the water issue, listen, I headed up Department of Water and Power, like I said, for 10 years. I have a pretty good understanding of the water issues. What's happening in the north really has v- not as much of an impact as happening down in Southern California in terms of how the water gets transferred around. It doesn't mean we should be pouring water into the ocean. We should not be. We should be doing a lot of things. We should be collecting water, we should be holding water, we should be recycling water, we should be doing a lot of things. What happened in Los Angeles, which is just close to negligence, if not negligence, Joe, the fire hydrants ran out.

Joe Rogan 21:29 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 21:29 We, we evacuated our home. And, uh, we're in Brentwood, so y- you know the area.

Joe Rogan 21:37 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 21:37 We're 15 minutes from the Palisades where the fire started. And it was my birthday, we were having family dinner. Uh, from the second floor, we saw the flames. We said, "We're gonna have to get out of here." The power went off. We said, "We're out." Gathered the family, we moved down to a home we have in Newport Beach. And I get a call from one of my senior executives who's sort of embedded in with the fire command post, and my heart dropped. He said, "We just lost your daughter's home." And I said, "Oh my god. Banyon, how the hell did that happen?" You know. Um, he said, "You can't believe it. The hoses ran dry and the whole neighborhood went up." And I was so angry that I... FOX 11, the local FOX station was on with Alex Michaelson, and I texted him 'cause they were reporting live. This is about 10:30 at night. I said, "Are you getting reports that they've run out of water?" He said, "Not at all." And I said, "You need to report this." He said, "Do you wanna come on live?" I said, "Yeah, hook me up." And I went on. He couldn't believe it. And some of the media was trying to spin it-

Joe Rogan 22:54 I saw that.

Rick Caruso 22:55 ... like it's not true.

Joe Rogan 22:56 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 22:57 And then-

Joe Rogan 22:57 And then they went right to the firemen. Yeah.

Rick Caruso 22:59 Went right to the firemen, right?

Joe Rogan 23:00 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 23:01 The firemen said, "Yeah, we're standing there, empty hoses." How in God's name, the second-largest city in the country, can you have a water system that runs out of water in a fire? And you knew the fire... You knew this was coming, right? They gave warnings of catastrophic winds. The reservoir is empty over, I think it was 1.7 million gallons?

Joe Rogan 23:24 I think it's 11 million.

Rick Caruso 23:26 Maybe 11 million?

Joe Rogan 23:27 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 23:27 Probably right. It's empty?

Joe Rogan 23:29 Empty.

Rick Caruso 23:29 During fire season?

Joe Rogan 23:31 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 23:32 You've got brush that hasn't been cleared for 40 years. There was a whole bunch of us, um, raising hell about that after the fire in Brentwood six years ago.

Joe Rogan 23:42 Right. Yeah.

Rick Caruso 23:42 Nothing was done. The fire department wasn't pre-deployed, so there weren't engines staffed in different areas. You've got a fire department that's underfunded and (laughs) you've got fire equipment that's mothballed.

Joe Rogan 23:56 And then the mayor flies to Ghana.

Rick Caruso 23:58 And the mayor's out of town.

Joe Rogan 23:59 So what, what should have been done? And who's responsible?

Rick Caruso 24:04 Well, I think the leadership is responsible at every level. I think the mayor's responsible for not being better prepared. I think she's certainly responsible for not staying in town. That's a lack of judgment. If you wanna be a leader, uh, the first thing you have to do is be present. Um...I don't know what all the meetings that she had beforehand to make sure everybody was prepared. But years ago, the brush should have been cleared.

Joe Rogan 24:27 Yes.

Rick Caruso 24:28 Right? And if-

Joe Rogan 24:28 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 24:29 You probably couldn't have prevented the fire. Maybe you couldn't have prevented the fire. I... Only God knows.

Joe Rogan 24:34 Well, we don't really know-

Rick Caruso 24:34 But you could have mitigated it.

Joe Rogan 24:35 We don't really know the source of the fire yet. And we do know-

Rick Caruso 24:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 24:38 ... there was quite a bit of arson.

Rick Caruso 24:40 That, that's true. That's true. And there was a fire... To your point, there was a fire on New Year's Eve, uh, from fireworks. And there's some talk that it may have been in that same area that just sparked up again, or maybe it was another arson that went up there, but-

Joe Rogan 24:56 But it seemed like there were several fires that started very close to each other.

Rick Caruso 25:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:01 It seems like highly unlikely-

Rick Caruso 25:03 Could be.

Joe Rogan 25:04 ... that there was just three accidents that took place at the same time as these catastrophic winds.

Rick Caruso 25:09 Right. Could be.

Joe Rogan 25:10 And then the mo- You know, like, the most sinister version of it is that somebody wanted this to happen, maybe some mentally ill person. I know they did arrest-

Rick Caruso 25:15 It's a sickness. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:16 It, it is a sick... Arsonists are... They're really sick people.

Rick Caruso 25:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:20 And it's a known psychological illness. There's, uh, a guy that they arrested that was a, uh, a known arsonist, um, several times arrested, who, uh, had a fake fire truck and drove down-

Rick Caruso 25:34 I saw that.

Joe Rogan 25:34 Yeah, drove down from Oregon to do who knows what.

Rick Caruso 25:36 Can you imagine?

Joe Rogan 25:37 Yeah. Well, there's-

Rick Caruso 25:38 You gotta be really, really sick.

Joe Rogan 25:39 There's some psychos out there.

Rick Caruso 25:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:40 Yeah, there's some real sick people out there.

Rick Caruso 25:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:41 There's some weird people also that enjoy watching other people lose everything. It's very strange.

Rick Caruso 25:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:48 But I, I guess people who feel like they have nothing and they feel like the world has screwed them over and they haven't got the breaks they deserve, they literally want to watch-

Rick Caruso 25:56 That's right.

Joe Rogan 25:56 And there's this entitled culture that we live in that kind of tells people that the reason why other people are successful is because they've stolen from you.

Rick Caruso 26:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 26:03 Which is just the craziest thing-

Rick Caruso 26:05 Craziest thing.

Joe Rogan 26:06 ... to say in America.

Rick Caruso 26:07 But it gives them an excuse.

Joe Rogan 26:08 It gives them an excuse. And it also gives them a pathway to vent their anger. And instead, point it productively at their own lives, so like, "Why am I in this position right now? What could I have done differently?"

Rick Caruso 26:18 That's exactly right.

Joe Rogan 26:18 "What personal responsibility do I have for the way I live right now?"

Rick Caruso 26:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 26:21 Instead of that, it's like, "No, no, no. These rich people, they fucked you over."

Rick Caruso 26:25 Right. That's right. "They took advantage of us."

Joe Rogan 26:26 Yeah. Um, so the water. Why... What is the explanation for why that enormous reservoir that provides the Palisades with water was empty?

Rick Caruso 26:37 Well, the explanation that's been said is it's out of service because the cover on it needed to be repaired.

Joe Rogan 26:42 Oh, the cover?

Rick Caruso 26:43 The cover. Because, you know, we're very sensitive in LA that bad things don't get in our water. So they have to keep all these reservoirs covered, which in general I get. I, I, I get the safety of that. But how about this? You know that you have catastrophic winds coming, start pumping water in it 'cause nobody gives a shit about what's in the water-

Joe Rogan 27:04 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 27:05 ... when you need it in your fire hydrant.

Joe Rogan 27:06 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 27:06 Right?

Joe Rogan 27:07 That could have been done in probably a couple of weeks.

Rick Caruso 27:10 Whatever it took.

Joe Rogan 27:11 Yeah. And it's not like we don't know. Uh, uh, LA has fire season. I remember every year because, uh, when I... Where I used to live in Bell Canyon is, you know... It's about 35 minutes from LA.

Rick Caruso 27:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 27:22 And it gets rough out there. It's like a lot of, like, big rolling hills and it gets all filled with grass.

Rick Caruso 27:28 Right.

Joe Rogan 27:28 And if it catches and the winds start whipping through those canyons, the winds in California, for people that don't, don't know, every year we get the Santa Ana winds.

Rick Caruso 27:36 That's right.

Joe Rogan 27:37 And they're crazy.

Rick Caruso 27:38 They are crazy.

Joe Rogan 27:39 If you've ne- Some of them were 100 miles an hour this year.

Rick Caruso 27:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:41 That is just... If you've ever been out there for that, that's nuts. And if there's fires blowing, boy.

Rick Caruso 27:47 It's... No, it's, it's, it's a terrible combination. I mean, the early settlers called them the devil winds.

Joe Rogan 27:52 Mm-hmm.

Rick Caruso 27:53 And they've been there forever.

Joe Rogan 27:54 Forever. Yeah.

Rick Caruso 27:54 To your point, they've been there forever. So just think about, you know, had the brush been cleared, had the reservoirs been full, had the fire trucks been stationed, had there been a whole series of protocols in place, again-

Joe Rogan 28:09 We could have saved some houses.

Rick Caruso 28:10 I- It could have saved a lot. I think a lot of lives-

Joe Rogan 28:12 Saved a lot of lives.

Rick Caruso 28:12 ... a lot of houses, a lot of jobs, a lot of pain.

Joe Rogan 28:16 A lot of pain.

Rick Caruso 28:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:17 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 28:17 You know? Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:18 So that's just incompetence. There's no way you could say, "Oh, I see why they didn't do that."

Rick Caruso 28:23 Right.

Joe Rogan 28:23 "Oh, I see why they didn't have the resources. Oh, it's not their fault." No, there's none of that there. No one's saying that.

Rick Caruso 28:28 That's right. That's right.

Joe Rogan 28:29 Everyone is saying it's a failure.

Rick Caruso 28:31 It's a failure because they're not equipped to deal with the leadership they needed.

Joe Rogan 28:34 Even the spin masters, even the, the greatest of gaslighters have nothing. There's not one person who's tried to pass the buck.

Rick Caruso 28:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:43 I've not seen one successful person go on the air and say, "Everything was done that could have been done. We have amazing leadership. We're really proud of them. We're really lucky we have them." Not one.

Rick Caruso 28:55 You're right.

Joe Rogan 28:56 Not one. But-

Rick Caruso 28:57 I-

Joe Rogan 28:57 That's kind of crazy.

Rick Caruso 28:58 It is kind of crazy.

Joe Rogan 28:59 'Cause they gaslight everything.

Rick Caruso 29:00 Yes.

Joe Rogan 29:01 No matter what it is. Everything's safe and effective. Everybody's fine.

Rick Caruso 29:04 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:04 Everything's great. We have a... He's the sharpest tack. Everything...

Rick Caruso 29:07 (laughs) Sure.

Joe Rogan 29:07 They gaslight the shit out of you with everything. But with this one, they're like...

Rick Caruso 29:11 But-

Joe Rogan 29:12 There's not nothing you could say.

Rick Caruso 29:14 I agree with that 'cause the facts are the facts.

Joe Rogan 29:16 The facts are the facts.

Rick Caruso 29:17 You just can't argue around the facts.

Joe Rogan 29:18 And also there's a thing that happens when an area bigger than Manhattan that's filled with the most liberal people-

Rick Caruso 29:24 Oh.

Joe Rogan 29:24 They're the most liberal. They're the most blue no matter who, the, the most like-

Rick Caruso 29:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:28 ... the, uh, like, compassionate, cons- like, kind people that, like, view being a Democrat and being a liberal as being the, the ultimate expression of being a good person.... and they're getting slapped in the face by the reality.

Rick Caruso 29:44 I think the politics have changed.

Narrator 29:47 It's a big weekend! Get in on the action of the big game in UFC 312 at DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the UFC. The men's middleweight and women's strawweight titles will be on the line in the co-main events of UFC 312. And of course, pro football is crowning a champion at the big game. Just getting started? Pick a fighter or a team to win this weekend. Go to DraftKings' app and make your pick. That's all there is to it. And if you're new to DraftKings, listen up. New customers can bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use the code ROGAN. That's code ROGAN for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. It's a big weekend only on DraftKings. The crown is yours.

30:39 Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY to 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co/audio.

Rick Caruso 31:10 I think the reality has set in, honestly, and it's unfortunate it's taken this, but the reality really has set in that you've got to have competent leadership.

Joe Rogan 31:20 Yes.

Rick Caruso 31:21 And, and what happened at DWP, 'cause I was there for 13 years, 10 of which I was president, or close to 10, is the, the head of that department got politicized. Years ago under Bradley and under Reardon, under Hahn, the general manager of Department of Water and Power was always somebody who came through the ranks, who was just this exceptional engineer, and that department was regarded as best in class in the country as a utility, bar none. The best financial rating, the best engineers wanted to work there. It built some of the most amazing projects in history, including Hoover Dam. So, let's just start with that one, right? Then what happened, politics creeped into who was the general manager. That destroys an organization. This is an organization that's not in the business of being necessarily doing what's politically important at the time. It's in the business of delivering water and power. And th- the failure is also there. I don't understand how the current general manager of the department, I don't know what she did and didn't do, but the kind of failure that's on her desk, where the buck stops, she needs to resign. She needs to be fired, in my opinion, by the mayor, and be held accountable for whoever made bad decisions, including herself. But we're allowing this. And so the minute you allow that, that continues, this creep of incompetence is tolerated and it shouldn't be tolerated 'cause people lost their lives, they lost their homes, right?

Joe Rogan 33:09 Well-

Rick Caruso 33:10 Am I right about that?

Joe Rogan 33:10 ... you're, you're 100% right. And I think you're 100% right about politics. And the problem with politics is that people wanna preserve the structure that pays them. They wanna preserve the entity that they're invested in-

Rick Caruso 33:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:25 ... that they have their time in, they have all their connections-

Rick Caruso 33:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:28 ... and, and this is the, the weird world of politics versus the world of business. And you know, what's fascinating right now is we're getting a chance to see what happens when you take a business approach to the government-

Rick Caruso 33:41 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:41 ... i- in the White House.

Rick Caruso 33:42 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:42 We're seeing right now with this whole USAID thing, where they're uncovering massive-

Rick Caruso 33:47 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 33:47 ... amounts of corruption and waste and, and just a lot of weird shady shit with NGOs and, and where an enormous amount of money is going. And you're seeing someone look at this thing that is incredibly efficient almost by design and instead of saying like, "Well, this is just how it is and this is how these politicians get funded, so let's just keep this thing going the same way it is and make some incremental changes to try and make people happy-"

Rick Caruso 34:15 Right.

Joe Rogan 34:15 "... so we still get elected."

Rick Caruso 34:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 34:17 Instead of that, you're seeing a pol- a p- a politician, a president who's coming in who can't get reelected, so he's just going HAM and he's just cleaning out everything, and people are freaking out. The, the same people that say, "We need radical change."

Rick Caruso 34:30 Right. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:30 "We need radical change. We've got corruption. We need radical change." Okay, well here's your radical change.

Rick Caruso 34:34 (laughs) Right.

Joe Rogan 34:35 "We don't need this!" But you do.

Rick Caruso 34:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:37 The, the government does. They need oversight-

Rick Caruso 34:40 Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 34:40 ... and they haven't had that, and because of that y- you're seeing this w- not just waste, you can call it waste, but, uh, it's, it's deeper. It's deeper than waste.

Rick Caruso 34:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:48 It's corruption. And you're seeing that, that corruption get weeded out. I am hoping that this is successful and that it yields a benefit to the American people, to the working class people, to everybody where they recognize like, "Hey, we can't just be spending all our fucking tax money on nonsense."

Rick Caruso 35:07 Right.

Joe Rogan 35:07 And it all should be done with w- a, a real clear understanding of getting results.

Rick Caruso 35:13 Right.

Joe Rogan 35:14 If that happens and that s- that idea spreads across the country, 'cause ideas spread and, and-

Rick Caruso 35:20 Yeah. That's right.

Joe Rogan 35:20 ... people change their minds.

Rick Caruso 35:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:22 And, you know, and sometimes it happens, one guy in the neighborhood will go, "You know what? Fuck this. I'm fed up." And then everybody, "Yeah, I, I've been kinda thinking that too, I just didn't wanna say it." And then-

Rick Caruso 35:30 That's exactly right though.

Joe Rogan 35:31 ... people start talking and then it's not a scary thing to discuss anymore.

Rick Caruso 35:34 That's right. It opens the door.

Joe Rogan 35:35 Right.

Rick Caruso 35:36 100%. And I think you're seeing that now. I feel it in LA. You're seeing that now. Like I said, it's terrible that it took this kinda tragedy to have people seeing it. I'm a big believer it can change. I'm a big believer that LA can turn around. I'm a big believer we can fix the problems. I'm a big believer we can fix the problems in California. I really am.And I think we have started to turn this corner where people are saying, "You know what? Whether you're Democrat or Republican, to me, sort of doesn't matter. Are you competent? Do you have experience? Are you gonna make decisions for the right reason?" When, when I was the president of the Police Commission, it was the most amazing experience because Jim Hahn's mayor, we have a police department that was failing miserably after the Rodney King riots. The police department w- was under the federal, a federal consent decree. A federal judge was overseeing it. We had Bernie Parks, who was the chief of police. I don't know if you remember Bernie Parks.

Joe Rogan 36:38 I do not.

Rick Caruso 36:38 He was probably there when you were living there. He looked... He came out of central casting, very handsome, proud Black man, and wore the uniform beautifully, rose through the ranks. Super nice guy. We were friends. Jim Hahn calls me and says, "Hey, I wanna appoint you as the president of the Police Commission." And I said, "Mr. Mayor, I really appreciate it, but I don't want the job." 'Cause I knew what the job was gonna entail. Potentially having to fire a very, very popular chief of police. And he's... Two or three times called back, I finally did it. So glad I did 'cause I learned so much from the experience. At the end of the day, decided we needed to move on and have a different chief of police.

Joe Rogan 37:24 What was wrong? What, what was he doing?

Rick Caruso 37:26 What he was doing, Joe, is he had put in procedures, discipline procedures, that were so onerous on the officers that, one, officers were leaving, but more importantly, the bad guys, particularly the gangs, were very smart that they would start filing complaints in certain areas that they wanted to control around the city. And so, the officers started getting all these complaints on their record, and once they did, it held up any kind of promotion or transfer. So what do the cops started doing? They started saying, "I'm just not gonna go to that area."

Joe Rogan 38:07 Hmm.

Rick Caruso 38:07 And the minute they abandoned that area, the gangs controlled it and crime was going crazy.

Joe Rogan 38:12 How clever.

Rick Caruso 38:13 Yeah, right?

Joe Rogan 38:14 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 38:15 So, I would go to the chief and say, "Come on, you gotta change the discipline process." Nope, not changing a thing. Very stubborn guy.

Joe Rogan 38:22 Hmm.

Rick Caruso 38:22 He had all the answers, but... Yeah, and I, I don't mean that... I, I'm... It's facetious. He didn't have all the answers, obviously. But... So that was the main problem. So if you had an area of the city that bordered LA County, LA city crime was rising, LA County was going down because the sheriffs were actually proactively... And not in an abusive way, proactively policing it. LAPD was retreating. Cops were upset, cops were leaving, the academy is empty. All of these things were happening. Had to change leadership. I had people burning me in effigy, literally. My wife would call me and say, "Oh my God, they're burning you outside of city hall. They're marching." It was crazy. To put pressure on me to keep Bernie Parks, not because Bernie Parks was the- the best chief of police, because it was politically correct to do that. And I remember calling Jimmy Hahn, the mayor, and I said, "I'm gonna make a recommendation and you're probably not gonna like it 'cause it's... You're gonna come under a lot of heat." And to his credit, he said, "Just do what's right. I'll take the heat." And I recommended we hire Bill Bratton. And we brought this guy in to LA, his Boston accent and all, best cop in the country, built a team around him. Uh, we got crime down to levels not seen since 1950. Doing all the right things, engaging the community, senior lead officers, walking the beat, getting to know the neighborhoods, started hiring. People wanted to be a member of LAPD. There was now back a pride in it. Completely turned it around within a couple years. But that all came, and then Jimmy lost re-election because the Black community unfortunately abandoned him, um, because of not keeping Bernie Parks. It's one of the reasons. But he did the right thing. He didn't care about his political future. He cared about the city. He never gets enough credit for this. And I just learned that lesson, which I talked about earlier. If you've got the freedom to make a decision without worrying about getting re-elected, it's probably where the president's head is. "I'm just gonna do what I think is right." It really is amazing what can happen. So let's get more people like that who just understand, "Let's do what's right for people." I'm in public service, serve the damn people.

Joe Rogan 40:58 It almost seems like at this point-

Rick Caruso 41:00 It's pretty simple.

Joe Rogan 41:01 ... you need someone who's outside of politics to, to run for office.

Rick Caruso 41:05 I think you do.

Joe Rogan 41:06 Because everybody that's in-

Rick Caruso 41:07 I know that sounds self-serving, but I think you do.

Joe Rogan 41:09 It does... Of course it would sound self-serving coming from someone who wants-

Rick Caruso 41:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:13 ... to be... You're outside of it and want to r- be the mayor. But it's... I think that's the correct response because the people that are in it are just too tied in. You're just... They're too tied in to-

Rick Caruso 41:24 They're too beholding.

Joe Rogan 41:25 They're too beholding.

Rick Caruso 41:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:26 It's just... It, it's entwined. The octopus has many tentacles.

Rick Caruso 41:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:30 And it's wrapped around everything. And it just stalls all progress and change. And no, no real radical change can ever be met. Uh, no one wants to go with it because it's gonna disrupt all their different ideas and businesses and, and people are gonna look like they're irresponsible or incompetent, so they don't want change. They wanna pretend that this is the only way to go forward.

Rick Caruso 41:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 41:51 And then if someone does come along and changes things radically, I mean, it makes them all look terrible and it's, it's dangerous.

Rick Caruso 41:57 Yep.

Joe Rogan 41:57 It's dangerous for business.

Rick Caruso 41:58 Yep.

Joe Rogan 41:59 They're, they're not in the business of helping people. They're in the business of keeping their job.

Rick Caruso 42:03 100%.

Joe Rogan 42:04 Yeah, and that's what's gross.

Rick Caruso 42:05 It is really gross.

Joe Rogan 42:06 It is gross. And it seems like the only way that that ever gets resolved is you have to bring in someone who's a businessman or a businesswoman.

Rick Caruso 42:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:14 Someone who understands business, who's outside of this political system and says, "Th- I've studied this for years. There's a lot of things that could be fixed."

Rick Caruso 42:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:22 "And they're not being done and we could do it."

Rick Caruso 42:24 Yeah. And, you know, the issue with that is, it, it's such a tough system. There's so much that gets thrown at you.

Joe Rogan 42:32 Yeah, like the whole en- entire party of-

Rick Caruso 42:35 Yeah. I know.

Joe Rogan 42:35 ... Democrats came to go after you.

Rick Caruso 42:37 I know. But everyone-

Joe Rogan 42:39 Everyone.

Rick Caruso 42:39 ... a Democrat. I'm very moderate.

Joe Rogan 42:41 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 42:41 You know, I'm fiscally very conservative, I'm socially liberal, but they were... Eh, so, you know, what gives the incentive to the person on the outside to do it?

Joe Rogan 42:52 Right, nothing.

Rick Caruso 42:53 And that's what we've gotta figure out. Listen, I- I've got high hopes for San Francisco with their new mayor. Again, an outsider came in and won. I think that's great. I hope he does great-

Joe Rogan 43:05 I hope he does too.

Rick Caruso 43:05 ... and changes the city.

Joe Rogan 43:06 That place was amazing at one point in time. I used to love going to San Francisco.

Rick Caruso 43:09 Oh.

Joe Rogan 43:09 I haven't gone in years-

Rick Caruso 43:10 I'm right with you.

Joe Rogan 43:11 ... just 'cause it's too crazy.

Rick Caruso 43:11 No, it's terrible. It's a dump.

Joe Rogan 43:14 It's unbelievable that one of the greatest-

Rick Caruso 43:16 It was one of the old-time great cities.

Joe Rogan 43:17 ... cities in the country-

Rick Caruso 43:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:18 ... has just completely fallen to ru- Uh, but no course correction until now. But I'm, I'm hopeful for this new mayor as well.

Rick Caruso 43:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:25 And I'm also hopeful that a lot of the new young tech people are fed up.

Rick Caruso 43:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:30 You know, I think the new people who grew up with the internet understand the corruption and the bullshit. Whereas the old people from a couple decades ago were really just spoon-fed bullshit from the mainstream media-

Rick Caruso 43:41 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:41 ... and they thought that this is the only way to be. Like we're, we're the kind, intelligent, well-read, progressive people on the West Coast. It's our responsibility to be compassionate, you know, and to be the most-

Rick Caruso 43:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:52 ... charitable people possible. And they just didn't realize, like you're, you're not doing anybody a service by letting them camp out in front of your house and smoke meth.

Rick Caruso 43:59 That's right. That's right.

Joe Rogan 44:00 That's not... None of that's good.

Rick Caruso 44:01 That's right.

Joe Rogan 44:02 It's all real bad for them. It's all real bad for your kids.

Rick Caruso 44:04 And, yep-

Joe Rogan 44:05 It's real bad for the neighborhood.

Rick Caruso 44:05 ... and all those businesses moved out.

Joe Rogan 44:07 Yes. All those businesses moved out. San Francisco just became insane watching all these, uh, enormous chains just pull out. And then people get angry and cry racism when they pull out, like c- c-

Rick Caruso 44:17 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 44:17 What are you doing? You're d- (laughs) How do you not-

Rick Caruso 44:21 I know.

Joe Rogan 44:21 It's just from the outside it's like-

Rick Caruso 44:23 (laughs) I know.

Joe Rogan 44:23 Moving to Texas was such an eye-opener too, uh, you know?

Rick Caruso 44:26 I'm jealous with ev- You know, being here in Austin today, all the new buildings going up.

Joe Rogan 44:32 Yes.

Rick Caruso 44:32 I said to my wife, "Oh my God, look at this."

Joe Rogan 44:34 It's booming.

Rick Caruso 44:35 It's booming. There's-

Joe Rogan 44:37 Freedom.

Rick Caruso 44:38 Go to a restaurant last night and people are happy, having a great time, and there's new buildings going up and high rises and the city's clean. Everywhere I drove around last night-

Joe Rogan 44:47 Yes.

Rick Caruso 44:47 ... and today, just immaculate.

Joe Rogan 44:48 But it's also... You know, I talked to Steven Adler, who is the former Mayor of Austin, great guy, and, you know, he was explaining to me the homeless situation. We had a, a long talk about it 'cause it really boomed during PO- uh, COVID.

Rick Caruso 44:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:00 Uh, and he was saying, "Look, LA's too big. I think I can fix the problem in Austin." And they did a, an enormous-

Rick Caruso 45:06 How did they do it?

Joe Rogan 45:07 ... jo- They did a fantastic job. They bought a bunch of hotels, they put people up, they started programs. They, they put a lot of effort into it.

Rick Caruso 45:14 Good.

Joe Rogan 45:14 But they were only dealing with a few thousand homeless people.

Rick Caruso 45:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:17 They had like 3,000. Like that's enough-

Rick Caruso 45:19 Nice.

Joe Rogan 45:19 And this is what Steven Adler was saying. He was saying, "You could fix that. You can't fix it when it gets to 80,000, 90,000." H- He's like, "It just gets too big with the burea- pro- bureaucratic process." Like, as government functions-

Rick Caruso 45:34 Right.

Joe Rogan 45:34 ... today without the outsider coming in and making radical change. The way it functions today, he's like, "Oh, it's just too big."

Rick Caruso 45:42 I don't know.

Joe Rogan 45:42 He goes, "I think I can fix Austin. And I think I can fix Austin before I get out." And I think he did a great job.

Rick Caruso 45:47 That's good.

Joe Rogan 45:47 I mean, there's still problems. You're always gonna have problems.

Rick Caruso 45:50 Sure.

Joe Rogan 45:50 You have cities.

Rick Caruso 45:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:51 You're gonna have mentally ill people, you're gonna have drug addicts.

Rick Caruso 45:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:53 You're gonna have people that have just been abused their whole life and they're just destroyed mentally, and then they're out and then you have schizophrenia and all these o- other-

Rick Caruso 46:01 Yeah. It's very sad.

Joe Rogan 46:02 It's very sad. You know?

Rick Caruso 46:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:03 We clearly need better mental health institutions, uh, set up in this country to deal with a lot of these people, because that's what-

Rick Caruso 46:11 No doubt.

Joe Rogan 46:11 ... a lot of it... And a lot of it happened during the Reagan administration when they changed the-

Rick Caruso 46:15 They closed them down.

Joe Rogan 46:16 Yes. They closed down-

Rick Caruso 46:17 Yep.

Joe Rogan 46:17 ... mental health institutes and just said, "You're on your own." And just let these people loose on the street. And then you have-

Rick Caruso 46:22 Right.

Joe Rogan 46:22 ... on, on top of that you have the crack epidemic that comes around at the same time. It's like chaos.

Rick Caruso 46:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:27 Just full chaos.

Rick Caruso 46:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:28 And you saw, like I saw the changes in, in the cities. I saw the changes in the news. I saw, you know, and people were recognizing that this is like a new, a new problem. B- But it's never been like Los Angeles where you're driving down the street you should see blocks and blocks of tents.

Rick Caruso 46:49 Right.

Joe Rogan 46:49 Which is like, how is this not fixed? You're not-

Rick Caruso 46:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 46:53 ... even allowed to litter. So if you're not allowed to litter-

Rick Caruso 46:56 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 46:56 ... how are you allowed to do that?

Rick Caruso 46:57 There's definitely a couple of standards that are different. I- I'm not giving up that it can be fixed though. And I understand there's a big difference with solving for 3,000 versus 80,000, whatever the number is. But it can be fixed, 'cause it has to be fixed.

Joe Rogan 47:10 I think it has to be fixed by an outsider, is what-

Rick Caruso 47:12 Well, I agree with that.

Joe Rogan 47:13 ... what Steven Adler's point was-

Rick Caruso 47:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:14 ... uh, ultimately really.

Rick Caruso 47:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:15 It's like, you know-

Rick Caruso 47:16 I agree with that.

Joe Rogan 47:16 ... being in the system.

Rick Caruso 47:17 I agree with that. There's no doubt it has to. And, uh, and again, somebody that's willing to risk their political career by doing the right thing for the people on the street. These are human beings that have a right to be given a chance to have a better life. And a lot of people are there, you know, just 'cause everything went wrong in their life.

Joe Rogan 47:39 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 47:39 And God bless them. And you gotta try to, to fix it. And it... And the waste of the money in doing it is a crime. Anyway, we've talked about it, but I'm, I'm still hopeful. I know I run overly optimistic in life, but I think it can be done.

Joe Rogan 47:52 Well, it's worked out well for you. (laughs)

Rick Caruso 47:54 Well, I've been pretty fortunate and blessed in my life so I got no complaints.

Joe Rogan 47:58 (laughs) And sometimes being, working hard and being overly optimistic actually-

Rick Caruso 48:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:00 ... works out sometimes.

Rick Caruso 48:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:01 A lot of times.

Rick Caruso 48:02 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:03 Um, okay so-So let's talk about law and order.

Rick Caruso 48:07 Okay.

Joe Rogan 48:07 Um, that, that's a, a giant issue in Los Angeles.

Rick Caruso 48:09 Yes, it is.

Joe Rogan 48:09 People do not feel, um, as safe as they used to feel. They feel like there's more violent crime, there's more unreported crime. And maybe more concerning is that people get arrested then immediately get released.

Rick Caruso 48:22 Right.

Joe Rogan 48:23 And there doesn't seem to be any repercussions for that.

Rick Caruso 48:26 Right.

Joe Rogan 48:26 So what would you do to change that?

Rick Caruso 48:29 Well, thank goodness state law got changed. I mean, that's another-

Joe Rogan 48:32 Yes.

Rick Caruso 48:32 ... really good example of what happened in California-

Joe Rogan 48:34 Yes.

Rick Caruso 48:34 ... that they repealed the law that allowed anything under $900 to just be a misdemeanor.

Joe Rogan 48:39 Right.

Rick Caruso 48:39 It was insanity.

Joe Rogan 48:41 Insanity.

Rick Caruso 48:41 Right? Just insanity. And they weren't bundled, so you could like, in a Syrian fashion, keep stealing $900- (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:49 Right, every day.

Rick Caruso 48:49 ... and it was still (laughs) ... E- every hour. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:51 Right. Yeah, as long as it was at a pop.

Rick Caruso 48:53 And it was still a... It was still a misdemeanor.

Joe Rogan 48:54 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 48:54 So that law changed. Great progress. Um, holding bad people accountable is really important. I'm also a big believer to give people a chance to rebuild their lives, no doubt. Goes hand-in-hand. But, um, we made a big change by getting rid of George Gascón as our district attorney, who was not prosecuting, and allowing people... It was just a turnstile. You got arrested, you were let out.

Joe Rogan 49:22 What... C- could we get to the heart of that?

Rick Caruso 49:24 Sure.

Joe Rogan 49:25 What's the motivation for that? Like-

Rick Caruso 49:27 Motivation for doing that?

Joe Rogan 49:28 Yes.

Rick Caruso 49:29 That... Well, I probably won't explain it right, because I don't, I don't es- agree with it, is that from a social justice standpoint, quote unquote, um, you don't wanna overpopulate the prisons, you don't wanna hold people and take away their life for a minor crime. Um-

Joe Rogan 49:48 But a lot of it wasn't minor crimes.

Rick Caruso 49:50 A lot of it was a minor crime.

Joe Rogan 49:51 Like there was one of them that was a guy, who was this crazy homeless guy who pulled a knife on a sheriff, and then two weeks later, there... At least somewhere, a little, a sm- short time after that, I don't know if it was two weeks, attacked a man with his family with a machete on the beach.

Rick Caruso 50:05 Yeah, yeah. No, I know. You're right. You're right. I mean, what-

Joe Rogan 50:08 So that's a violent criminal-

Rick Caruso 50:09 What George did... Yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. And I can't explain it because it just... It's so messed up. I, I don't even know how you justify letting somebody outta jail or not holding 'em with bail, any of that. I don't understand it. I think most people got to the point they were so worried about where crime was going, they did finally get rid of George, and we brought in Nathan Hochman, and I think Nathan's doing a great job. So I, I, I can't, I can't explain it. But the-

Joe Rogan 50:39 But the fear is that it's done on purpose. This is the fear, that-

Rick Caruso 50:42 Oh, of course it is.

Joe Rogan 50:43 That's the fear. The, the, the great fear is that there are people in this world that want LA and major cities in this country to be in complete disarray, to have constant chaos-

Rick Caruso 50:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 50:56 ... and to be able to push liberal prosecutors, and then push even more liberal prosecutors to go against them and continue this cycle, and make it so that people live in a constant state of fear.

Rick Caruso 51:07 And what's the end goal of that?

Joe Rogan 51:08 It has to be profit. I mean, someone has to be profiting off of it.

Rick Caruso 51:11 Who profits off of that?

Joe Rogan 51:13 I don't know. Ask George Soros.

Rick Caruso 51:14 Yeah, right.

Joe Rogan 51:15 Ask the people that fund these, like extremely liberal district attorneys that all seem to have the same idea-

Rick Caruso 51:21 But don't you think their tide is turning?

Joe Rogan 51:22 ... to no cash bail. I do.

Rick Caruso 51:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:24 I do think that tide is turning, and I know that Elon Musk wants to do sort of the exact opposite, like to try to find... He's been talking about that, financing people that are much more reasonable and that-

Rick Caruso 51:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:35 ... believe in law and order.

Rick Caruso 51:37 Well, Nathan is a good example of that. I mean-

Joe Rogan 51:38 That's great. We need fair laws. We need, we need kind justice. We need, we do need rehabilitation, but we also need to protect people that aren't criminals.

Rick Caruso 51:46 Of course.

Joe Rogan 51:46 But that's the primary thing, is protect the general public. Serve and protect, right?

Rick Caruso 51:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 51:51 That's the whole idea.

Rick Caruso 51:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:52 We need to protect everybody else, and then the people that were life... Did them wrong, and they've wound up like... Let's figure out a way to actually rehabilitate them instead of just putting them in cages.

Rick Caruso 52:02 Yeah. And people are doing that. I mean, there's some very successful programs that are doing that. But I agree with you. I mean, we gotta get back to the point where government's primary function is to protect the public and give them the ability to prosper-

Joe Rogan 52:17 Right.

Rick Caruso 52:17 ... give them the ability to build a business, raise your family, keep your community safe. It's just so basic, but-

Joe Rogan 52:22 It's so basic.

Rick Caruso 52:23 ... it's gone upside down.

Joe Rogan 52:24 Yeah, it's... That's what's crazy is that law and order-

Rick Caruso 52:27 And so when you're de-

Joe Rogan 52:27 ... thrown out the window. Without law and order, no one is safe.

Rick Caruso 52:30 That's right.

Joe Rogan 52:30 You got... You need to understand that if you just don't go after bad people, then they have no fear of doing whatever they want-

Rick Caruso 52:37 Right.

Joe Rogan 52:37 ... and then you're letting them out on jail-

Rick Caruso 52:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:39 ... so... Out of jail, so then you've got more of them out than ever before.

Rick Caruso 52:42 Self-perpetuating.

Joe Rogan 52:43 There was a podcast that I listened to where there was a former gang member who was talking about how they're gonna let 70,000, uh, hard criminals out of the LA jails-

Rick Caruso 52:52 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 52:52 ... and he's like, "I'm getting out of town."

Rick Caruso 52:54 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 52:54 This guy was a hardcore gang member-

Rick Caruso 52:56 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 52:56 ... who's like, "LA is gonna get too crazy-"

Rick Caruso 52:58 That's very scary when you think about that.

Joe Rogan 52:58 "... in the next year." It's just nuts. And, you know, there was the whole defund the police movement, which was just catastrophic. That, that whole... And seeing politicians, including Kamala Harris, seeing politicians openly say and post it on Twitter, "We need to defund the police-"

Rick Caruso 53:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:15 ... which is just crazy.

Rick Caruso 53:18 It, it is a-

Joe Rogan 53:19 It doesn't mean-

Rick Caruso 53:19 ... as wrong as it can be.

Joe Rogan 53:21 Yeah. Certainly-

Rick Caruso 53:22 Wrong as can be.

Joe Rogan 53:22 ... hold bad cops accountable, certainly have better training-

Rick Caruso 53:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:25 ... certainly have higher standards.

Rick Caruso 53:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:27 But defunding the police? Like, what are you talking about?

Rick Caruso 53:29 And-

Joe Rogan 53:29 You need to do the opposite.

Rick Caruso 53:30 That's right.

Joe Rogan 53:31 You need to train them better, refund them.

Rick Caruso 53:33 Right. 100%.

Joe Rogan 53:34 Definitely make the bad ones accountable, definitely make people feel safe that they're interacting with police officers, but respect these people. Respect these people that are protecting your life-

Rick Caruso 53:44 That's right.

Joe Rogan 53:44 ... 'cause all those people when something goes down and they call 911, they're furious when cops don't show up.

Rick Caruso 53:49 That's right.

Joe Rogan 53:50 All these people who talk shit about the cops, uh, that are protected, defund the police, you're protected by armed security people-

Rick Caruso 53:57 Right. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 53:57 ... and you're saying defund the police. This is fucking nonsense. It's nonsense.

Rick Caruso 54:01 I couldn't agree more.

Joe Rogan 54:02 And for people that suffered because of this defund the police thing and this whole wave of crime that went through LA, you know, in, in the wake of it all, you know, those people are the people that...... you can get to.

Rick Caruso 54:15 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:16 The, the people that saw it, experienced it, know the consequences of this foolish direction that everything is going in, those are the people that you can still reach. And I think it could be reached with a person like you, that is a compassionate, kind, liberal guy when it comes to social issues, but understands business, and understands-

Rick Caruso 54:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:36 ... like, accountability, and that you have to, you have to see positive results. You have to do what needs to be done to get those positive results. You can't just do the same shit over and over again-

Rick Caruso 54:46 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:46 ... and pay more people. And-

Rick Caruso 54:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:47 ... "We need a bigger budget." You know, like, "Oh, the b- let's raise the bu- we've increased the budget to fix the problem that's-"

Rick Caruso 54:53 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:53 You're not fixing it.

Rick Caruso 54:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 54:54 Keeps getting bigger.

Rick Caruso 54:55 That's right. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:56 It's just nuts. It seems-

Rick Caruso 54:57 You gotta-

Joe Rogan 54:58 ... i- it needs someone outside the system, and that's why I was really happy to talk to you. And that's why-

Rick Caruso 55:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:02 ... I'm really happy that you're still involved. Because a lot of people like yourself, that are very wealthy and you don't have to do this. This isn't, isn't, uh, gonna be, you're not gonna make money doing this. Like, this is pro- probably gonna be a, a huge strain, a tr- a tremendous amount of pressure. But some people feel a calling, and they feel like-

Rick Caruso 55:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:19 ... "I think I can do something and fix this, that other people maybe won't be able to do."

Rick Caruso 55:23 I appreciate that. And I do. I do, because what's the alternative? We, we stay in the same path?

Joe Rogan 55:29 It gets worse.

Rick Caruso 55:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:30 The alternative is it gets worse.

Rick Caruso 55:31 Y- it's gonna get worse.

Joe Rogan 55:32 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 55:33 And more and more people are leaving, more and more businesses close down. But here's what really hit me on the campaign, and I was telling the, uh, our family. I've got four kids, and they're 35 to 25, and just incredible people, and my wife is wonderful. I'm really incredibly blessed with all of that. I was so worried when I decided to run for mayor, the impact on the family, right? A little bit scary, high profile-

Joe Rogan 55:57 Yeah. Yeah.

Rick Caruso 55:57 ... all these kinda things. It ended up being the greatest experience, and we would go into neighborhoods, hardworking neighborhoods of people that just wanted the ability to work hard and live their life, that would just want the ability to allow their daughter to be able to walk to school on her own and not have to walk around an encampment or for fear that there'd be somebody that would attack her on the way to school, right? The most basic things. And y- we'd give 'em a hug, uh, you know, they would cry, we would cry, and I would tell the kids, "That cry is hope." And what we're seeing there is for th- the first time, there's actually somebody coming into their neighborhood, a neighborhood that historically doesn't vote in large chunks, so the politicians forget about 'em, right? 'Cause they're not likely voters necessarily. But we were trying to mobilize it, and we were also trying to give a voice to people that don't have a voice. How inspiring that was for me. That's what fueled me. And you're right. I d- I don't want a career as a politician. I want a career of being able to give back and help and, and, and take the group of people that have the least voice, but are some of the hardest working people of our society, and give 'em an opportunity to grow. That was my grandfather, as an immigrant, as a gardener. But he had the opportunity to raise his family where he didn't have to worry about all this shit. It's just changed so much. So, I believe we've gotta get our elected officials. If we take people who are the hardest working, the dearest people, that have the most impact because of crime, because of homelessness, because of being overly taxed, all of these kinda things, and we give them hope and a path forward, everybody benefits from it.

Joe Rogan 58:02 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 58:02 You start solving so many problems, Joe. There's a little school in the middle of the, the, the heart of the worst part of Los Angeles with the, with the homelessness in Skid Row, and it's called Para Los Niños. And my wife and I have been supporting that school for over 30 years now. You... Outside the doors is the biggest sea of inhumanity of homeless people just strewn out on the street, drugged out, all terrible mental health conditions. You open that door, and it's beautiful and caring and loving. And this school that we support, there's a series of schools, takes in children from six months to five years old. The parents are all working parents, uh, below the poverty line working parents. So they're working in the sweatshops, whatever the case may be. They're living down at Skid Row in apartments, two or three families in an apartment, working their tail off to just survive, and then to be able to get their child in this school that costs them nothing, it's fully supported. Those are the dearest, sweetest children in the world. We love going down there. Our kids have worked down there since they were little kids. We do a Christmas party for 'em. And what gives us such joy is seeing the hope in their eyes. And I know it sounds corny, but it's such an important path, that we've gotta get our elected officials to be more supportive of that, and get more of these kinda schools and give more of these families the opportunity to do well. 'Cause they wanna do well, but the system is frankly against them. And that's what I wanted to change more than anything.

Joe Rogan 59:44 Well, let's talk about that. This, this school, there's no reason why they should have to encounter that environment outside that school.

Rick Caruso 59:52 You're right.

Joe Rogan 59:53 There's no reason. That's, this is not nuclear waste. This is not something that can't-

Rick Caruso 59:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:56 ... be cleaned up for five million years, we have to leave it alone. This is human beings. This is human, human devastation out there in the street. The fact that these kids have to encounter that, first of all, what does that do for your sense of hope in your, your future of the world? Like, you-

Rick Caruso 1:00:12 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 ... this is what you're seeing every day? Like, y- you-... you, you absorb that from your environment. The, the, the, the sadness-

Rick Caruso 1:00:18 Of course.

Joe Rogan 1:00:19 ... and the devastation all around you, when you're seeing people with lost lives out in the street, right in front of your school. When you're a young kid and you're a developing mind, and that's the environment that you encounter all the time, like, that is gonna fuck your head up forever.

Rick Caruso 1:00:32 Yeah. It's very tough.

Joe Rogan 1:00:33 And, and then there's the question of the sweatshops. Like, why, why, how, why, how come people that work their tail off constantly have to live three, four families-

Rick Caruso 1:00:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:44 ... in a, in an apartment? Like, what the hell is going on there?

Rick Caruso 1:00:47 I, I agree.

Joe Rogan 1:00:48 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:00:48 But that's what, that's what I'm saying, that's what I think we gotta start fixing.

Joe Rogan 1:00:53 Yes.

Rick Caruso 1:00:53 Right? And if you start fixing that ... Now, your point is right. These kids having to see that every day, they're being yelled at, you know, by people as they're walking through the doors and all that, it's terrible. But thank God that school is there, 'cause if that school wasn't there-

Joe Rogan 1:01:08 They have nothing.

Rick Caruso 1:01:09 ... they got nothing.

Joe Rogan 1:01:09 Right.

Rick Caruso 1:01:10 They're on the street.

Joe Rogan 1:01:11 No, it's amazing.

Rick Caruso 1:01:12 And-

Joe Rogan 1:01:12 But I mean, uh, the problem outside the school, that should be fixed. That should be a public health issue. I mean, if you're wor... Uh, the future human beings, uh, uh, if, if you wanna look at this country and you wanna make America a great place, uh, what you want is less people that are gonna lose at life. You want less losers. The, the best chance you can have less losers is start them off on a good path when they're young.

Rick Caruso 1:01:40 That's right.

Joe Rogan 1:01:41 And if-

Rick Caruso 1:01:41 Well said.

Joe Rogan 1:01:41 ... if you're starting-

Rick Caruso 1:01:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:42 ... them off on a good path when they're young, if you're giving them the tools that they need to have a successful life, giving them hope, giving them examples of good people that you could strive to be like, like, "What would Mike do? I, I probably wanna do what he does."

Rick Caruso 1:01:55 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:01:55 "He would get up and get this done, and you know, I, I admire that person." And having people around you that are examples of someone who lives a life that you admire.

Rick Caruso 1:02:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:04 And they, they ... When you're just seeing people peeing on themselves and throwing up and walking through the, the, the, the streets just covered in cardboard shelters and tents, like, that's not hope. You're not gonna see h- you're not seeing good examples.

Rick Caruso 1:02:18 That's right. Right.

Joe Rogan 1:02:19 So, what are you depending on for your examples? That, that's a travesty. That should be cleaned up, uh, uh, uh, immediately. So, let's talk about that. What could be done for Skid Row, which is probably the worst example-

Rick Caruso 1:02:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 ... of LA's homeless problem?

Rick Caruso 1:02:35 It's the same thing with any b- any place else that we talked about. You, you have to, I believe, supercharge these organizations, like a Para Los Niños, that are doing well, that are really changing lives, like the Downtown Women's Center, like Common Concern. There's Union Rescue Mission. There's dozens of them.

Joe Rogan 1:02:52 Where do you put all those people?

Rick Caruso 1:02:54 There's this-

Joe Rogan 1:02:54 You got all these people on the streets. You got 100,000 people in the streets.

Rick Caruso 1:02:57 There's endless land. There's endless land. We ... The city of Los Angeles has something like over 300 or 400 parcels of land that are vacant. They're just sitting there vacant. Densify them, build on them, build housing. Absolutely do it. Skid Row, there's a lot of opportunity to do that, and a lot of organizations that will do that. But we, we can never say, "Well, create enterprise zones." I mean, I wanted to create enterprise zones. You go to South LA or whatnot, there's areas that they were burned out years ago from the riots that have never been rebuilt. Create an enterprise zone, give tax incentives to go down there and build housing. The tax code, when I was a young lawyer, they changed all the tax laws. They had a lot of tax credits, a lot of incentives to do things. It's a g- it's a great way to incentivize businesses. Mobilize the private financial markets to invest and do things. There's an enormous amount of capital in this country. We're the wealthiest-

Joe Rogan 1:03:58 Right.

Rick Caruso 1:03:58 ... country in the world.

Joe Rogan 1:03:59 Especially LA.

Rick Caruso 1:04:00 LA is, is so wealthy. The state of California, fifth-largest economy in the world. We have an economy larger than India.

Joe Rogan 1:04:08 It's nuts.

Rick Caruso 1:04:09 It's nuts. And do we have problems? Of course. Can you imagine if we fixed the problems, what this state could do? It would be incredible. There's nothing like it. And so, I think we just have to have some really basic goals of how we're gonna change things little by little, start attacking them, but start getting people off the streets, start building, start giving the incentives to do it, break some eggs as you're doing it, because you're saving lives. And I think once you get that in motion, it starts taking off. I really do. Because people do not wanna continue the way we're continuing. And if there's a handful of people that do, who cares? God bless them.

Joe Rogan 1:04:58 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:04:58 Leave them there. But that's not the far majority of the people.

Joe Rogan 1:05:01 I think those handful of people are fed a narrative, and the narrative is, there's one way that's good, and there's one way that's evil.

Rick Caruso 1:05:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:08 And there's the right-wing people that wanna be fascists, totalitarian dictators, and they just want the wealthy to get wealthier, and they want the poor to starve.

Rick Caruso 1:05:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:17 And then you have the left-wing side that has this idea of compassionate care and letting everybody be themselves and let people camp out, and let ... You know, "And we, we need to treat people like human beings," and "They're not homeless, they're the unhoused," and you start reframing things.

Rick Caruso 1:05:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:35 And it's just a bunch of nonsense.

Rick Caruso 1:05:37 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:37 And unfortunately, these people are all conditioned to think that everybody opposed to them hates civil rights, hates women's rights, hates gay rights, and they're, they're, they're, they're right-wing, hardcore, uh, fascist assholes.

Rick Caruso 1:05:52 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:53 What we need is someone ... This, this is one of the things that made me happy about you, is that you need someone who appeals to people's sense of kindness and caring and, you know, being a progressive person in terms of, like, social issues.

Rick Caruso 1:06:07 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:06:07 But yet understands human nature and understands business. Like that you, you have to do things if you wanna change things.

Rick Caruso 1:06:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:17 You can't just throw money at it.

Rick Caruso 1:06:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:19 You can't just have a bunch of people that are just bullshitting and not getting anything done. And this is the problem with LA that we see.

Rick Caruso 1:06:26 Well, there's, there's no doubt but it ... But don't you think that is changing though, right? We've talked about that.

Joe Rogan 1:06:31 I think it's changing.

Rick Caruso 1:06:32 I think it's changing. I, I really do.

Joe Rogan 1:06:33 But, uh, you know, LA will snap right back to the old way. Uh, the, the ... I mean-

Rick Caruso 1:06:37 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:06:37 ... if you just give them a couple of good years, they'll, they'll be convinced that, you know, we-

Rick Caruso 1:06:41 We gotta fight that good fight though, Joe. We gotta fight that good fight.

Joe Rogan 1:06:44 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:06:44 There's too much at risk.

Joe Rogan 1:06:46 There is too much at risk.

Rick Caruso 1:06:47 There's just too much at risk. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:47 I, I d- ... I do think, uh, b- ... It all really depends on how successful Trump is in hi- this four years that he has and th- the structure that he sets up, and how he can kind of cl- ... If, if it really shows people that, "Hey, guess what? Gay people aren't losing rights. Hey, guess what? Women aren't losing rights. Hey, guess what?"

Rick Caruso 1:07:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:05 "Civil rights aren't being eroded. This is not what's happening," and that the whole country benefits if we see GDP go up, if we see-

Rick Caruso 1:07:12 I agree.

Joe Rogan 1:07:13 ... homelessness-

Rick Caruso 1:07:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:14 ... jobless- joblessness go down-

Rick Caruso 1:07:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:16 ... uh, that would be amazing.

Rick Caruso 1:07:17 It would be amazing.

Joe Rogan 1:07:18 If, if that happens, then maybe people could wake their mind up to the fact that you're not in this binary system and that you really should be a part of a team. You should be a part of Team America and Team America is like, "We want the whole thing to be better."

Rick Caruso 1:07:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:30 "Everybody, all of us."

Rick Caruso 1:07:32 Yeah. Wouldn't that be great?

Joe Rogan 1:07:33 It'd be amazing. It's ... It can be done.

Rick Caruso 1:07:35 Yeah, and it can be done. I, I agree.

Joe Rogan 1:07:36 It can be d- ... Most people, I think, are reasonable, kind people. Most people.

Rick Caruso 1:07:40 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:07:41 But I think people get trapped in ideologies and California's one of the better examples of a place that's just trapped. De- ... You're either a Democrat or you're a fucking asshole.

Rick Caruso 1:07:50 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:07:50 Like, (laughs) that's, that's how people look at it, you know?

Rick Caruso 1:07:53 Oh, God.

Joe Rogan 1:07:54 That's how people look at it.

Rick Caruso 1:07:55 Yeah, I think there's a lot of that.

Joe Rogan 1:07:57 There's a lot of that.

Rick Caruso 1:07:58 I, I'm a little bit more ... Again, I, I run a little bit more optimistic in the f- in the faith of my fellow Angelinos and Californians that I think there's a real desire to make significant change. I really do. I'm hearing a lot of that, even from some of my most liberal friends. They, they want change.

Joe Rogan 1:08:20 Oh, yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:08:20 And, and-

Joe Rogan 1:08:21 Well, you could push people up and to a point.

Rick Caruso 1:08:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:23 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:08:24 Yeah. Now, I do think the success of Trump is gonna have a big influence on that, and so ... Especially in California, you know, 'cause, you know, their ... The majority is very leery, right?

Joe Rogan 1:08:39 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:08:39 And s- ... Los Angeles, very leery of that. And if he could do more of what he did that day at that press conference out in the Palisades, it would be great, 'cause he did show a compassion. He, he did show a strength. He showed that what he cared about was the people getting back in their homes and let's take care of them. He showed an impatience with the bureaucracy that was ... You know, they were spinning it, boy-

Joe Rogan 1:09:06 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:09:06 ... the elected officials that day, and he was pushing back on it.

Joe Rogan 1:09:09 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:09:10 Very professionally, very nicely, but very strongly.

Joe Rogan 1:09:14 He's much better at handling people this time around. I think he's sort of corrected-

Rick Caruso 1:09:18 I, I was, I was impressed.

Joe Rogan 1:09:18 ... a lot of the way he used to communicate with people, and he's much more e- even and measured.

Rick Caruso 1:09:24 Yeah. I was-

Joe Rogan 1:09:24 So much more effective.

Rick Caruso 1:09:25 I agree.

Joe Rogan 1:09:26 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:09:26 I was impressed. And like I said earlier, he's a builder. He's a successful builder, and I would love to him to give a little brue- blueprint to the city of LA and say, "You know, here's the 10 things you need to do."

Joe Rogan 1:09:40 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:09:41 And, and it should only take th- ... I mean, that's what we're doing. This new foundation I launched with a bunch of really smart thought leaders in industry, um, have come together. We launched it yesterday just to go tackle problems. Don't, don't tell me what the problem is without the solution, uh, you know? I just live by that. And there is a solution to every problem. It may not be the solution you want, but there's a solution out there, so work towards it. And I'll g- I'll give you an example. You know, I've been pushing since the fires, we've gotta underground all the power lines.

Joe Rogan 1:10:10 Yes.

Rick Caruso 1:10:11 You can't go rebuild the Palisades or Altadena the way it was built 70 years ago.

Joe Rogan 1:10:16 Right.

Rick Caruso 1:10:16 It'd be insane.

Joe Rogan 1:10:17 It's insane.

Rick Caruso 1:10:18 So underground the power lines, redo the water mains, redo the fire- hire firefighting system, blah, blah, blah. And I get this pushback, "We don't have the money. We don't have the time." You just had the largest urban disaster in the history of the United States, $250 billion worth of damage, and you're telling me you don't have the money to do the right thing? Didn't we just have the largest infrastructure bill in history passed about a year ago? We must have the money, and we'll find the money, but that can't stop you from doing what's right. So this organization I put together is to go be the advocate for those homeowners, to be the advocate for those businesspeople that lost their businesses, and work alongside government and say, "Listen, we'll solve the problem for you and hand the blueprint to you."

Joe Rogan 1:11:10 And what is-

Rick Caruso 1:11:11 "And then we're gonna hold you accountable to implement it."

Joe Rogan 1:11:13 What is the answer when they say, "We don't have the money"? If you have California, which is just insanely enormous economy-

Rick Caruso 1:11:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:22 ... so, and a very high tax rate.

Rick Caruso 1:11:24 B- one of the highest, that's right.

Joe Rogan 1:11:25 So you have high taxes. So you have an eno- enormous economy. That means you got a lot of money.

Rick Caruso 1:11:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:11:30 So where's the money going?

Rick Caruso 1:11:32 (laughs) Where the money's gone, I can't tell you. You know, we used to have a surplus in California, now we have a deficit. So if that happens at your home or my home, that means we mismanaged our money. It's pretty simple.

Joe Rogan 1:11:44 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:11:45 Um, i- in solving the problem for the Palisades or Altadena on the electric issues or the infrastructure issues ... Listen, the city has bonding authority. Department of Water and Power has bonding authority. There's federal grants. There's state grants. There's private capital. We're gonna go solve that and give s- some answers to the city, but my point is, the answer can't be, "Let's not do what's right." We've done enough of that. The answer has to be, "We're gonna go do this, and now we're gonna solve how to pay for it, and we're gonna do it quickly to get people back in their homes and start building again." And I believe we can bend the curve. If somebody thinks it's gonna take five years, let's go figure out how we get it done in two years. This is where private enterprise-... needs to come in and help the government because the government alone can't fix this problem. It's too big, they work too slow, you need innovation and entrepreneurship that private enterprise brings. We saw that in COVID with Project Warp Speed in getting, uh, the medicines that were needed at the time. We saw it at 9/11 on getting the rebuilding done. And we need to implement the same thing in Los Angeles to get the city rebuilt because it's an impact on the American economy to have the size of two Manhattans, two Manhattans, burned down.

Joe Rogan 1:13:07 That's how big it is?

Rick Caruso 1:13:09 Can you imagine that?

Joe Rogan 1:13:10 That's insane.

Rick Caruso 1:13:11 14,000, 15,000 structures burned.

Joe Rogan 1:13:14 It's so hard for people to imagine that. It, it... I just went back, like I, I was telling you I was there a couple weeks ago for the UFC.

Rick Caruso 1:13:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:21 And, you know, you, you see it and when you're flying over, it just doesn't even make sense.

Rick Caruso 1:13:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:26 You know, we see... We, we showed the, the drone footage as well of the Palisades.

Rick Caruso 1:13:29 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:13:29 I mean, it doesn't make sense.

Rick Caruso 1:13:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:31 It's so much devastation.

Rick Caruso 1:13:32 Can't get your head around it.

Joe Rogan 1:13:32 Altadena's gone.

Rick Caruso 1:13:33 Gone.

Joe Rogan 1:13:34 Gone. Which is... And, you know, Altadena, uh, my friend Jimmy Dore was just talking about this the other day in a video, it, it was this beautiful, like, nice neighborhood.

Rick Caruso 1:13:44 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:44 Tree-lined streets and-

Rick Caruso 1:13:46 Yeah, cottage homes. Dear, sweet neighborhood. It was-

Joe Rogan 1:13:49 And gone.

Rick Caruso 1:13:50 Yeah, gone.

Joe Rogan 1:13:50 One of the nice neighborhoods, I mean, like, a beautiful area... neighborhood to drive through.

Rick Caruso 1:13:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:56 It's gone. And-

Rick Caruso 1:13:56 And those people mostly, Joe, as you know, so many of them, there's no safety net.

Joe Rogan 1:14:02 Right.

Rick Caruso 1:14:02 I mean, very moderate income.

Joe Rogan 1:14:04 Right.

Rick Caruso 1:14:05 You know, working class, hard-working class people. Um, and I was... I've, I've been telling all the elected officials, you gotta have programs that start supporting people because they are down and out. They have nowhere to go and we, we've gotta do something to help them, you know, day-to-day to live.

Joe Rogan 1:14:23 One of... One of the things that was bothering me was they were talking about replacing all those beautiful streets that were filled with single-family homes with, uh, big apartment buildings.

Rick Caruso 1:14:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:14:35 And that it would just ruin that area.

Rick Caruso 1:14:37 Can't do it.

Joe Rogan 1:14:38 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:14:38 Can't do it. It's wrong. Yeah, this is not the time to be reimagining anybody's neighborhood-

Joe Rogan 1:14:45 No.

Rick Caruso 1:14:45 ... off the backs of the devastation and the pain. I've been really vocal about that. And this is, you know... This is the creep you get, what you're talking about, this social justice. "Well, now," let's say, "in the Palisades, let's start building a whole bunch of low-income housing." I'm all for low-income housing. I'm building workforce housing for our employees that are low income 'cause I wanna make sure they have a home. So, I'm all into that. But now's not the time to do it in a neighborhood that's been devastated and there's also... You're gonna have people that won't be able to move back to their neighborhood because they may not be wealthy but they may make more money than what is required to move into a low-income apartment. They can't move back. Don't do that. That's not fair. If you wanna do that, what I've told the elected officials is provide an incentive, not a requirement. If you build some low-income units in, in an apartment building you're replacing, we... Oh, let me back up. So, we have this crazy law in the City of Los Angeles. The crazy law in the City of Los Angeles is something to this effect, I may not get it exactly right. If you tear down an existing apartment building that's market rate, you have to replace it with low-income housing. Okay. I think that's-

Joe Rogan 1:16:11 All of it?

Rick Caruso 1:16:13 Maybe it's not all of it. I think it's the majority of it, but whatever the number is, okay? My point is when you do that, you provide a disincentive to reinvest in the city.

Joe Rogan 1:16:24 Yeah.

Rick Caruso 1:16:25 So, let's turn it around and provide an incentive. Say, if you close, knock it down and rebuild, or it's burned down in the Palisades and wanna rebuild, then give a bonus density and allow that person to build more to compensate them for providing housing that is low income, right? Just seems to be more fair. Everybody gets what they want.

Joe Rogan 1:16:48 How would you do that? How does that, how does that work?

Rick Caruso 1:16:49 Well, let's say you have a 12-unit apartment building that burnt down in the Palisades. Instead of requiring low-income housing for, let's say, 20%, 30%, 40% of it, say, "Instead of building 12, we're gonna let you build 20 units. And out of the 20 units, give us six units that are low-income housing." Whatever the numbers are.

Joe Rogan 1:17:08 Mm-hmm.

Rick Caruso 1:17:09 But let's have government start thinking about an incentive-based system, right? I mean, you look at your life or my life or the people that work here, the harder you work, the more that you do, you're more rewarded, right? You're not required to work harder, you're incentivized to work harder or work smarter. And I think if we build that kind of thinking into government to provide capital, to provide investment, especially on the rebuilding, you can have some social policies that are very important and very good, like low income. What I would even say is, why don't we, why don't we give an incentive to build workforce housing in the Palisades and Altadena where the workforce housing goes to the first responders, firefighters, um, police, and teachers. So, now you can have firefighters, police, and teachers living in the neighborhoods they're serving. As you know, LA is so expensive. Most of the cops drive two hours to get home and two hours to get to work. Same with the firefighters. You want them to be in the neighborhood they serve. That's a great public policy.

Joe Rogan 1:18:20 I think-

Rick Caruso 1:18:20 Do it around an incentive.

Joe Rogan 1:18:21 Especially in a place like the Pacific Palisades, I think people deeply resent the idea of being forced to have any kind of low-income housing. The idea is that it's hard to live in the Palisades. It's expensive, it's beautiful, it's a, uh, incredible piece of land, or it was-

Rick Caruso 1:18:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:18:37 ... before the fires devastated it. It was a glorious place to live. Like-

Rick Caruso 1:18:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:18:41 It was very difficult to afford to live there, so the people-

Rick Caruso 1:18:43 It's true.

Joe Rogan 1:18:44 ... that made the most money were the ones who could buy the homes there. They don't want someone to open up low-income housing in the same neighborhood