Rick Caruso on California’s Collapse: Broken Leadership, LA Wildfire Failures & the Fix

58.201 - 89.537 Friedberg

Hello, everybody. All right. Rick, we're nine months out from the tragic fires. So much has happened. So much has happened. Karen Bass, so incompetent, such a disgraciad. Disgraciad. Disgraciad. My Italian brother in here. But when you look at it in all seriousness, you had some properties there and you've always been an innovator. Everybody knows the Grove.

89.577 - 112.978 Friedberg

I spent so much time there with my beautiful daughter, Lotus, and my beautiful wife, Jade. Just what a gift you've given so many times over to this amazing city. And then you watched this horrible incompetence and yet you innovated and you had this incredible insight that when the fires were coming, you would get water.

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in trucks and bring it to the Pacific Palisades and then you found this unique group of innovators called firefighters and you also brought some of them. What did you see in this incredible moment of clarity that when the fires were coming that Karen Bass didn't see?

131.572 - 158.119 Jason

Well, the first thing I did is I stayed in town. You didn't abandon the city. I think when you want to be a leader, you should probably be present. Good start. That's a good rule. Listen, we learned a lot when we were building our resort up in Montecito, in Miramar. We had fires there that were threatening the construction site. We were just under construction.

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And I had a very smart guy still do on the team, name is Banyan, and he's the one that said, we can bring in private firefighters, we can bring in our own water trucks, we can bring in retardant. And listen, here's another rule that's really important when you're in the commercial side of the business.

420.304 - 441.714 Jason

Right. David, what's amazing to me is, and we're waiting for this action after action report, which is incredible, we don't even have it yet. But I was convinced nine months ago, I'm more convinced today, that fire was completely preventable. And if you think I'm wrong and it wasn't completely preventable, the damage could have been significantly mitigated.

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The fire department was never pre-deployed. Where the fire started is the same exact place that there was a fire seven days before. I think what we're gonna see is the fire department did not put that original fire out. It smoldered and reignited. When it reignited, the winds were not here yet. The smoke was going straight up. We had the largest reservoir not filled with water.

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I mean, I got the call at night, the family was together, your daughter's home is burning down, and the firefighters, their hoses have stopped. There is no more water in the fire hydrants. And I said, how can that be? We're the second largest city in the country. Impossible. But listen, I think all of it is fixable. So I'm an optimist.

491.279 - 515.498 Jason

And with the right kind of leadership, and I'm not saying it's me, I'm just saying in general, in this state, in this city, in this country, with the right kind of leadership that is competent, eager, and willing to make decisions because they want to do what's best for the people they serve and not worry about getting reelected, great things can happen. And that's my hope for this region.

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Why is this happening around the nation? When you look at Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, these cities around this country, we're seeing similar kind of systems of decay and degradation. They're blue, that's why. What did you say? No, he said they're blue. But I want to, like, is that really what's going on?

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It has.

1101.935 - 1112.94 Friedberg

And it just seems to me that there just should be zero tolerance for camping on the street. Yet here we are again with encampments everywhere. What would be your approach?

1113.511 - 1144.978 Jason

Well, my approach was simple when I ran is you can't allow encampments on the street, but you've got to give people who are on the streets an opportunity to have a productive life. So give them the services they need, build the housing that they need. We are spending in the city of Los Angeles. $900,000 per person that they're removing from the streets. $900,000. Per year? Yeah. Oh, my God.

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There's billions and billions of dollars wasted. Redirect that to organizations that have incredible track records of being successful in Los Angeles. of housing people, giving them the services for mental health and drug addiction. And the first thing you do is you do not allow the sale of drugs on the street. Right now we do. I mean, that's a crime. It's illegal. Don't allow it.

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It is a crime.