Joe Rogan Experience #2268 - Rick Caruso

1. 0:00 – 1:23

   LA’s decline and why Caruso ran for mayor

   1. RCRick Caruso0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:06

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

   3. RCRick Caruso0:14

      Thanks for having me.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      My pleasure.

   5. RCRick Caruso0:15

      Great to be here.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Thanks for being here. Uh, it is a, uh, terrible time for Los Angeles.

   7. RCRick Caruso0:20

      Yup.

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:20

      And, uh, unfortunately, uh, you did not win. I wanted you to win.

   9. RCRick Caruso0:25

      Thank you.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       I was rooting for you.

   11. RCRick Caruso0:26

       Thank you.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:27

       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)

   13. RCRick Caruso0:45

       (laughs) Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things that aren't working out.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:47

       Yeah.

   15. RCRick Caruso0:47

       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.

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       It's amazing.

   17. RCRick Caruso0:55

       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.

2. 1:23 – 4:20

   What a mayor can actually do: leadership vs. career politics

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:23

      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.

   2. RCRick Caruso1:35

      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.

   3. JRJoe Rogan2:32

      (laughs)

   4. RCRick Caruso2:32

      '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.

   5. JRJoe Rogan3:47

      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.

   6. RCRick Caruso3:57

      Right.

   7. JRJoe Rogan3:57

      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.

   8. RCRick Caruso4:02

      Right.

   9. JRJoe Rogan4:03

      And you knew how to run a successful business.

   10. RCRick Caruso4:04

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:04

       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.

   12. RCRick Caruso4:18

       (laughs) Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan4:18

       And it just, nothing ever changes.

3. 4:20 – 6:51

   His family story and the ‘closed loop’ political machine

   1. RCRick Caruso4:20

      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.

   2. JRJoe Rogan4:51

      Oh, boy.

   3. RCRick Caruso4:52

      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.

   4. JRJoe Rogan6:32

      Right.

   5. RCRick Caruso6:33

      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.

4. 6:51 – 8:07

   Ad break: AG1

   1. JRJoe Rogan6:51

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   2. RCRick Caruso8:01

      Yeah. For sure.

   3. JRJoe Rogan8:01

      And the, the difference between 2020 and 2024, how many different counties went red-

   4. RCRick Caruso8:06

      Yeah.

5. 8:07 – 12:10

   Homelessness: cost overruns, wrong incentives, and fast housing ideas

   1. JRJoe Rogan8:07

      ... 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?

   2. RCRick Caruso8:19

      Well, you know, you got a homeless problem that continues to grow.

   3. JRJoe Rogan8:24

      So let's talk about that.

   4. RCRick Caruso8:25

      Okay. 70,000 people in LA County.

   5. JRJoe Rogan8:27

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

   6. RCRick Caruso8:30

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan8:31

      ... 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.

   8. RCRick Caruso8:42

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan8:42

      That there's people that are bureaucrats that work for this-

   10. RCRick Caruso8:45

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan8:46

       ... Department of Homelessness and they're making quarter million dollars a year.

   12. RCRick Caruso8:50

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan8:50

       And they have no incentive whatsoever to make anything better because it doesn't hurt them.

   14. RCRick Caruso8:54

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan8:54

       They're not paid based on whether or not they clean up the homeless issue.

   16. RCRick Caruso8:57

       That's right.

   17. JRJoe Rogan8:57

       They're just paid.

   18. RCRick Caruso8:58

       That's right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan8:58

       So the longer the homeless issue goes on, the more they keep their job.

   20. RCRick Caruso9:02

       Right.

   21. JRJoe Rogan9:03

       And it's a profitable job.

   22. RCRick Caruso9:04

       Yep.

   23. JRJoe Rogan9:04

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

   24. RCRick Caruso9:10

       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-

   25. JRJoe Rogan9:33

       That's amazing in itself.

   26. RCRick Caruso9:33

       Over 10 years. Over 10 years.

   27. JRJoe Rogan9:35

       (laughs) I'm amazed they built one.

   28. RCRick Caruso9:36

       Yeah, I know. But you know what they built them for? 800,000 a unit.

   29. JRJoe Rogan9:42

       Wow.

   30. RCRick Caruso9:42

       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-
6. 12:10 – 15:03

   Enforcement + treatment: scaling nonprofits that already work

   1. RCRick Caruso12:10

      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.

   2. JRJoe Rogan12:16

      Not just the sale, but the open use. I mean, meth, c- cooking meth right out-

   3. RCRick Caruso12:20

      All, all, all three, you're right.

   4. JRJoe Rogan12:21

      ... in front of everybody.

   5. RCRick Caruso12:22

      All the above. I mean-

   6. JRJoe Rogan12:22

      Yeah.

   7. RCRick Caruso12:24

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

   8. JRJoe Rogan12:31

      Yeah.

   9. RCRick Caruso12:31

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

   10. JRJoe Rogan12:38

       Right.

   11. RCRick Caruso12:39

       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.

   12. JRJoe Rogan13:20

       And what are they doing?

   13. RCRick Caruso13:21

       And you do it at a fraction of the cost. Sorry to interrupt you.

   14. JRJoe Rogan13:23

       What are these-

   15. RCRick Caruso13:23

       Do it at a fraction of the cost.

   16. JRJoe Rogan13:24

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

   17. RCRick Caruso13:28

       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.

   18. JRJoe Rogan14:52

       That's crazy.

   19. RCRick Caruso14:53

       It's crazy. And it's in Skid Row. It's not like you're building-

   20. JRJoe Rogan14:57

       Yeah.

   21. RCRick Caruso14:57

       ... in a sensitive environmental area.

   22. JRJoe Rogan14:59

       Right.

   23. RCRick Caruso15:00

       Right?

   24. JRJoe Rogan15:00

       Right.

   25. RCRick Caruso15:01

       Give the damn permits and say go.

7. 15:03 – 19:37

   Skid Row history and the moral cost of containment

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      I first encountered Skid Row when we used to film Fear Factor downtown.

   2. RCRick Caruso15:07

      Oh. Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:07

      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.

   4. RCRick Caruso15:15

      Hmm.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:15

      You know, it makes good backdrops.

   6. RCRick Caruso15:17

      Sure.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:18

      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?

   8. RCRick Caruso15:32

      Hmm.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:33

      So this is 20 years ago, 22 years ago. And even back then, it was bananas. And-

   10. RCRick Caruso15:38

       Come see it now.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:40

       Oh, I've heard. Well, we watched that documentary, is it the Carlyle Hotel, Jimmy?

   12. RCRick Caruso15:44

       I think so.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:45

       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.

   14. RCRick Caruso16:01

       Mm-hmm.

   15. JRJoe Rogan16:01

       And leave them in this area. And they had, you know-

   16. RCRick Caruso16:04

       Right.

   17. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       ... soup kitchens-

   18. RCRick Caruso16:05

       Right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:05

       ... and places-

   20. RCRick Caruso16:06

       Right.

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:06

       ... 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-

   22. RCRick Caruso16:13

       Right.

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       ... and mentally ill people, they just pushed them into this one area.

   24. RCRick Caruso16:16

       That's right.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:16

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

   26. RCRick Caruso16:20

       We can turn our back on it.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:21

       And then, of course, every business in that area got devastated.

   28. RCRick Caruso16:24

       Yep.

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:24

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

   30. RCRick Caruso16:31

       That's right.
8. 19:37 – 26:26

   Wildfires and infrastructure failure: empty reservoirs, dry hydrants, absent leadership

   1. JRJoe Rogan19:37

      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.

   2. RCRick Caruso19:56

      Mm-hmm.

   3. JRJoe Rogan19:56

      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.

   4. RCRick Caruso20:07

      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.

   5. JRJoe Rogan21:29

      Yeah.

   6. RCRick Caruso21:29

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

   7. JRJoe Rogan21:37

      Yeah.

   8. RCRick Caruso21:37

      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-

   9. JRJoe Rogan22:54

      I saw that.

   10. RCRick Caruso22:55

       ... like it's not true.

   11. JRJoe Rogan22:56

       Yeah.

   12. RCRick Caruso22:57

       And then-

   13. JRJoe Rogan22:57

       And then they went right to the firemen. Yeah.

   14. RCRick Caruso22:59

       Went right to the firemen, right?

   15. JRJoe Rogan23:00

       Yeah.

   16. RCRick Caruso23:01

       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?

   17. JRJoe Rogan23:24

       I think it's 11 million.

   18. RCRick Caruso23:26

       Maybe 11 million?

   19. JRJoe Rogan23:27

       Yeah.

   20. RCRick Caruso23:27

       Probably right. It's empty?

   21. JRJoe Rogan23:29

       Empty.

   22. RCRick Caruso23:29

       During fire season?

   23. JRJoe Rogan23:31

       Yeah.

   24. RCRick Caruso23:32

       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.

   25. JRJoe Rogan23:42

       Right. Yeah.

   26. RCRick Caruso23:42

       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.

   27. JRJoe Rogan23:56

       And then the mayor flies to Ghana.

   28. RCRick Caruso23:58

       And the mayor's out of town.

   29. JRJoe Rogan23:59

       So what, what should have been done? And who's responsible?

   30. RCRick Caruso24:04

       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.
9. 26:26 – 29:47

   Water policy, DWP politicization, and the need for accountability

   1. JRJoe Rogan26:26

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

   2. RCRick Caruso26:37

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

   3. JRJoe Rogan26:42

      Oh, the cover?

   4. RCRick Caruso26:43

      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-

   5. JRJoe Rogan27:04

      Yeah.

   6. RCRick Caruso27:05

      ... when you need it in your fire hydrant.

   7. JRJoe Rogan27:06

      Yeah.

   8. RCRick Caruso27:06

      Right?

   9. JRJoe Rogan27:07

      That could have been done in probably a couple of weeks.

   10. RCRick Caruso27:10

       Whatever it took.

   11. JRJoe Rogan27:11

       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.

   12. RCRick Caruso27:21

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan27:22

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

   14. RCRick Caruso27:28

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan27:28

       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.

   16. RCRick Caruso27:36

       That's right.

   17. JRJoe Rogan27:37

       And they're crazy.

   18. RCRick Caruso27:38

       They are crazy.

   19. JRJoe Rogan27:39

       If you've ne- Some of them were 100 miles an hour this year.

   20. RCRick Caruso27:41

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan27:41

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

   22. RCRick Caruso27:47

       It's... No, it's, it's, it's a terrible combination. I mean, the early settlers called them the devil winds.

   23. JRJoe Rogan27:52

       Mm-hmm.

   24. RCRick Caruso27:53

       And they've been there forever.

   25. JRJoe Rogan27:54

       Forever. Yeah.

   26. RCRick Caruso27:54

       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-

   27. JRJoe Rogan28:09

       We could have saved some houses.

   28. RCRick Caruso28:10

       I- It could have saved a lot. I think a lot of lives-

   29. JRJoe Rogan28:12

       Saved a lot of lives.

   30. RCRick Caruso28:12

       ... a lot of houses, a lot of jobs, a lot of pain.
10. 29:47 – 48:03

    Ad break: DraftKings / UFC 312

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    3. RCRick Caruso31:10

       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.

    4. JRJoe Rogan31:20

       Yes.

    5. RCRick Caruso31:21

       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?

    6. JRJoe Rogan33:09

       Well-

    7. RCRick Caruso33:10

       Am I right about that?

    8. JRJoe Rogan33:10

       ... 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-

    9. RCRick Caruso33:25

       Yeah.

    10. JRJoe Rogan33:25

        ... that they have their time in, they have all their connections-

    11. RCRick Caruso33:28

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan33:28

        ... 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-

    13. RCRick Caruso33:41

        Mm-hmm.

    14. JRJoe Rogan33:41

        ... i- in the White House.

    15. RCRick Caruso33:42

        Mm-hmm.

    16. JRJoe Rogan33:42

        We're seeing right now with this whole USAID thing, where they're uncovering massive-

    17. RCRick Caruso33:47

        Uh-huh.

    18. JRJoe Rogan33:47

        ... 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-"

    19. RCRick Caruso34:15

        Right.

    20. JRJoe Rogan34:15

        "... so we still get elected."

    21. RCRick Caruso34:16

        Right.

    22. JRJoe Rogan34:17

        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."

    23. RCRick Caruso34:30

        Right. (laughs)

    24. JRJoe Rogan34:30

        "We need radical change. We've got corruption. We need radical change." Okay, well here's your radical change.

    25. RCRick Caruso34:34

        (laughs) Right.

    26. JRJoe Rogan34:35

        "We don't need this!" But you do.

    27. RCRick Caruso34:37

        Yeah.

    28. JRJoe Rogan34:37

        The, the government does. They need oversight-

    29. RCRick Caruso34:40

        Yeah, of course.

    30. JRJoe Rogan34:40

        ... 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.
11. 48:03 – 55:33

    Law and order: DA incentives, no-cash-bail fears, and rebuilding trust in policing

    1. JRJoe Rogan48:03

       Um, okay so-So let's talk about law and order.

    2. RCRick Caruso48:07

       Okay.

    3. JRJoe Rogan48:07

       Um, that, that's a, a giant issue in Los Angeles.

    4. RCRick Caruso48:09

       Yes, it is.

    5. JRJoe Rogan48:09

       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.

    6. RCRick Caruso48:22

       Right.

    7. JRJoe Rogan48:23

       And there doesn't seem to be any repercussions for that.

    8. RCRick Caruso48:26

       Right.

    9. JRJoe Rogan48:26

       So what would you do to change that?

    10. RCRick Caruso48:29

        Well, thank goodness state law got changed. I mean, that's another-

    11. JRJoe Rogan48:32

        Yes.

    12. RCRick Caruso48:32

        ... really good example of what happened in California-

    13. JRJoe Rogan48:34

        Yes.

    14. RCRick Caruso48:34

        ... that they repealed the law that allowed anything under $900 to just be a misdemeanor.

    15. JRJoe Rogan48:39

        Right.

    16. RCRick Caruso48:39

        It was insanity.

    17. JRJoe Rogan48:41

        Insanity.

    18. RCRick Caruso48:41

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

    19. JRJoe Rogan48:49

        Right, every day.

    20. RCRick Caruso48:49

        ... and it was still (laughs) ... E- every hour. (laughs)

    21. JRJoe Rogan48:51

        Right. Yeah, as long as it was at a pop.

    22. RCRick Caruso48:53

        And it was still a... It was still a misdemeanor.

    23. JRJoe Rogan48:54

        Yeah.

    24. RCRick Caruso48:54

        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.

    25. JRJoe Rogan49:22

        What... C- could we get to the heart of that?

    26. RCRick Caruso49:24

        Sure.

    27. JRJoe Rogan49:25

        What's the motivation for that? Like-

    28. RCRick Caruso49:27

        Motivation for doing that?

    29. JRJoe Rogan49:28

        Yes.

    30. RCRick Caruso49:29

        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-
12. 55:33 – 1:09:41

    Opportunity, families, and fixing Skid Row by investing in proven community institutions

    1. RCRick Caruso55:33

       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-

    2. JRJoe Rogan55:57

       Yeah. Yeah.

    3. RCRick Caruso55:57

       ... 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.

    4. JRJoe Rogan58:02

       Yeah.

    5. RCRick Caruso58:02

       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.

    6. JRJoe Rogan59:44

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

    7. RCRick Caruso59:52

       You're right.

    8. JRJoe Rogan59:53

       There's no reason. That's, this is not nuclear waste. This is not something that can't-

    9. RCRick Caruso59:56

       Yeah.

    10. JRJoe Rogan59:56

        ... 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-

    11. RCRick Caruso1:00:12

        Right.

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:12

        ... this is what you're seeing every day? Like, y- you-... you, you absorb that from your environment. The, the, the, the sadness-

    13. RCRick Caruso1:00:18

        Of course.

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:19

        ... 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.

    15. RCRick Caruso1:00:32

        Yeah. It's very tough.

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:00:33

        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-

    17. RCRick Caruso1:00:43

        Mm-hmm.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:00:44

        ... in a, in an apartment? Like, what the hell is going on there?

    19. RCRick Caruso1:00:47

        I, I agree.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:00:48

        Yeah.

    21. RCRick Caruso1:00:48

        But that's what, that's what I'm saying, that's what I think we gotta start fixing.

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:00:53

        Yes.

    23. RCRick Caruso1:00:53

        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-

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:08

        They have nothing.

    25. RCRick Caruso1:01:09

        ... they got nothing.

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:09

        Right.

    27. RCRick Caruso1:01:10

        They're on the street.

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:11

        No, it's amazing.

    29. RCRick Caruso1:01:12

        And-

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:12

        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.
13. 1:09:41 – 1:20:17

    Rebuilding after the fires: underground power lines, incentives, and a private ‘blueprint’ push

    1. RCRick Caruso1:09:41

       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.

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:10:10

       Yes.

    3. RCRick Caruso1:10:11

       You can't go rebuild the Palisades or Altadena the way it was built 70 years ago.

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:10:16

       Right.

    5. RCRick Caruso1:10:16

       It'd be insane.

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:10:17

       It's insane.

    7. RCRick Caruso1:10:18

       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."

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:11:10

       And what is-

    9. RCRick Caruso1:11:11

       "And then we're gonna hold you accountable to implement it."

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:11:13

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

    11. RCRick Caruso1:11:22

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:11:22

        ... so, and a very high tax rate.

    13. RCRick Caruso1:11:24

        B- one of the highest, that's right.

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:11:25

        So you have high taxes. So you have an eno- enormous economy. That means you got a lot of money.

    15. RCRick Caruso1:11:29

        Right.

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:11:30

        So where's the money going?

    17. RCRick Caruso1:11:32

        (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.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:11:44

        Yeah.

    19. RCRick Caruso1:11:45

        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.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:13:07

        That's how big it is?

    21. RCRick Caruso1:13:09

        Can you imagine that?

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:13:10

        That's insane.

    23. RCRick Caruso1:13:11

        14,000, 15,000 structures burned.

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:13:14

        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.

    25. RCRick Caruso1:13:21

        Yeah.

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:13:21

        And, you know, you, you see it and when you're flying over, it just doesn't even make sense.

    27. RCRick Caruso1:13:26

        Yeah.

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:13:26

        You know, we see... We, we showed the, the drone footage as well of the Palisades.

    29. RCRick Caruso1:13:29

        Oh.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:13:29

        I mean, it doesn't make sense.

Episode duration: 1:48:14