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What About My Grotto? · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But what about my grotto.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I need a grotto.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's one more thing.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine what this is going to be.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Grotto might be at like the top of the list
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of words that aren't dirty but sound dirty.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I just came out. I was just
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: scrolling through Twitter, and somebody saw an old ad for
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: this product and said, fluffer nutter might be the.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Worst name for any food ever. Fluffer nutter is pretty graphic.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Fluffer nutter Man. I used to need the fluffer nutter
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: as a kid.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I don't think a butter fluff and I'm sorry marshmallow
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: fluff and peanut butter.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever had fluffer nutter.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: But that is a.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because my mom in particular, was
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: kind of concerned about nutrition and needing the right things
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and all. Of course, she fell for when the government
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: lied to us about what you should eat and what
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't, like so many people of our generation her generation.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: But uh, I'm surprised she permitted me to eat peanut
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich. Is especially because I was
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: very liberal.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: With the fluff, I mean nearly to the point of absurdity.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: But it does sound like a sex act slash insult
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: slash crime.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Well, because your offer is from is from porn, isn't it?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, helping the get you going.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Male actors maintain.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I make sure they're ready for the next take, exactly.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: I just called one of my friends a fluffer the
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: other day. I can't remember why. Hm, huh, we throw
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: that around frequently.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, here you go.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Wow an earthy young gal, no doubt. So. Uh, speaking
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of my grotto, I'm sorry, was there more you wanted
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to say, Katie, No, you're good.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Shocking and outrageous. I'm sure you.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: You got sluffer nut aro on my grotto sounds horribly
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: the scene and it's not in the least.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Or there were a couple of fluffer nutters in my gratto.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I've going to have it professionally cleaned, exactly, or go
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: to the doctor or whatever. Don't attempt this at home.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So this is this was so funny. I've been wanting
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: to bring this to the radio show, but it just
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: haven't gotten around to it. It's a story that is
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: ostensibly about a judge in Beverly Hills who got pissed
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: off that they're not cooperating with the state's laws for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: affordable housing. And the headline is in Beverly Hills, no
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: kitchen remodels or pool grattos as judge orders building moratorium
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: over lack of affordable housing. Essentially, he blocked the city
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: from issuing any building permits for anything, no matter how
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: necessary or silly or mundane or whatever, until they approved
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a sufficient blueprint for affordable housing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: So I got a nice piece of property, I got
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: a lot of money, but a judge's saying, you don't
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: need a grotto until we have more housed poor people rights.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Expand your garage or remodel your kitchen or put in
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a pool or anything.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Wow, And that's what gets done.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Now that's freedom the property I own.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Somehow me taking my money and getting a grotto next
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: to my pool has anything to do with poor people
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: getting more housing. That is really a weird world you
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: live in.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's clearly an activist judge who's taking politics
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: into his own hands and trying to make a point,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and it's it's in terms of property rights. It's an
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: absolute nightmare, absolute nightmare. That's just a terrible way to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: look at the world. Though I mean that.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: That's just if you If somebody I don't even know
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: gets a nicer stuff that makes me less happy, that's
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: just weird.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's just leverage. It's purely leverage, and it's indefensible,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I think. But if I were going to defend it,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I would hit you with the rest of the story.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, can the late Paul Harvey.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Sue me for that or his his kin folk? It
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was parody anyway, So they quote various people about how
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: outrageous it is and the rest of it. But then
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: they get into that Beverly Hills were entrepreneurs and entertainers
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: from Jeff Bezos to Leonardo DiCaprio and Taylor Swift own mansions,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: opulent hotels, attract well heeled visitors, and glamorous boutiques make
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: rodeo dry blah blah blah, shopping blah blah blah, and
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: so okay, great, we all know that, but I hadn't realized.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I'm only dimly aware of the fact that there's a
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: fifty year old state law that requires local governments to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: plan for a growing pop population and allow people of
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: all incomes to live in every community. It's like an
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: anti NIMBI law Not in My Backyard, passed in nineteen
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: seventy ish seventy five ish to make sure that the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: growing population would be would be accommodated everywhere in California.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And like rich Enclaves couldn't keep people out. Maybe you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: like that idea, maybe you don't, but Beverly Hill's efforts
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: to evade that are hilarious, hilarious, And that's.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: The part of the article.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I read the whole thing, because you'd never
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: know it from the first you know, quite a few paragraphs.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So in nineteen seventy the population in Beverly Hills was
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: thirty three thousand, four hundred thirty three thousand, four hundred.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Today it is thirty two thousand, four hundred, so it's
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: declined by one thousand people. Over the same period, the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: number of California residents has nearly has doubled to nearly
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: forty million people. So while the population of California's doubled,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Beverly Hills found a way to kick out a hundred
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a thousand people and become even more exclusive.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I didn't know Beverly Hills itself was that small, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: aside having just read the Charlie Chaplin autobiography. His good
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: friend Douglas Fairbanks, famous actor, had a ranch there, and
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: he'd go out to Douglas Fairbanks ranch and they would
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: ride horses. They love being in Beverly Hills because it
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: was so far from Los Angeles and the roads were
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: so bad, just one rutted dirt road that nobody would
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: come out there to visit, so they were all alone.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Isn't that interesting?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: The picture?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, in the early twentieth century.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: And who was the actor I read about? He was
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: kind of Fred McMurray.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I think it was.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Who was the dad on my three sons, And you know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: he'd play the stiff, upstanding, stoic guy in movies or
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: maybe a cowboy or something like that. But fine actor,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: but not a big star. But I think it was him.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And don't sue me if I'm wrong, But he said, wow,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: La Metro seems to be grown out in this direction.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I'll bet it'd be a good investment to buy a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: shitload of land out in Beverly Hills and San Fernando
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Valley wherever it was. And he became like mind bogglingly
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: wealthy through that and was like an institution in that area,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: just because he had foresight about real estate anyway, So
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: we've gotten a little off track, but it doesn't matter
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: who cares. So anyway, they have been incredibly effective at
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: having no population growth, No poor people know nothing, in
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: defiance of all state law. Says Thomas White, chair of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the Municipal League, a sixty year old civic organization. We
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: have intentionally created a desirable environment by deliberately avoiding over
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: development and over densification.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what we all want.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, over densification is kind of funny. So under the law,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: every state, every eight years, the state of cal Unicornea,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: which is of course where realism goes to die, tells
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: all cities how many new homes they need to accommodate
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: every eight years. In the cycle before this one, Beverly
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Hills total was three, an amount so miniscule given the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: depths of California's housing problems that it invited national attention,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and indeed, eight years ago did get some national attention. So,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: in an effort to combat widespread housing affordability, reduce carbon emissions,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah, there have been a series of unrealistic
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: laws passed in California no longer would wealthy enclaves get
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a pass, citing the discriminatory effects of low density zoning
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: laws and research showing better economic and health outcomes for
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: low income families that can move to richer areas. So
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in the current period, Beverly Hill's target under the housing
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: plan jumped to thirty one hundred and four homes.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So from what was it before two three?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: So from three to thirty one hundred homes, you've got
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to build them, and three quarters of them have to
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: be affordable to low and middle income residents. Yeah, and hey,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: do that well. So Beverly Hills, which of course has
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: lots and lots of super rich lawyers there and can
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: can figure out a way around these laws, kept putting
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: forth plans for how they're going to provide, you know,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: thousands of new affordable housing units, and the state has
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: rejected five in a row now, most recently in December,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: California Housing Department officials said this city is overestimating how
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: many of its commercial properties could add residential development and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: criticize the plan on fair housing grounds because it wasn't
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: putting housing in the cities wider and more affluent areas
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: all right, I know this seems kind of dry to you.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Here's what I'm working up to. The judge, after they
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: rejected the latest plan, pointed out that Beverly Hills is
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: counting on medical office buildings and car dealerships to convert
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: to housing, despite the city's own concession that it's unlikely
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: to happen. For instance, in their plan, they set an
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: AUDI dealership on Wilshire Boulevard that was just renovated as
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: a car dealership. It could be turned into forty one apartments,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: And of course you go to the Audi dealer and he's.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Like, what the hell are you talking about.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: And so Beverly Hills is cooking up these utterly fictional
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: plans to the state. Yes, we're going to turn the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Audi dealer into forty one affordable apartments. And the I
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: was gonna say McDonald's. I don't suppose. There's probably McDonald's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and Beverly Hills, I don't know. But and of course
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: this grocery store is going to become three hundred units.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: And again you go to the grocery store owner and
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: they're like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: This is a profitable grocery store. We have no plans
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to change it. And so the super rich, who I
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: guarantee you if you pulled them, would be left of Obama, right,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: they'd be left of Bernie Sanders. They haven't voted for
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: an r in one hundred and ten years, are doing
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: are going to extraordinary.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Lengths to evade all of this stuff.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: This is the sort of thing Tucker Carlson Nois used
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: to talk about that I was really on board with.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Is how a lot of your powerful lefties are in
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: favor of all these policies that don't affect them. They're
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: fine with it affecting everybody else, Like ninety nine point
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: nine percent of people just not that top wrong. We
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: don't want a legal immigration to get into our neighborhood,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: We don't want to have you know, low housing, income
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: housing in our neighborhood, but all of the rest of
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: the state should.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's classic socialism.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Really, the very.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: People, the very top like all this equality. As long
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: as long as I get more than everybody else, there
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: should be plenty of equality beneath me, right right freaking maddening.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: It's like when you see those Man on the Street
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: videos where the guy goes up to the people participating
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: in the Suctuary city protest, where everybody gets a home
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: and they're welcome and goes, okay, well let them come
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: to your house. I'm like, well, I don't have room,
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: and no, it's everybody else's problem.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I would love to see a list of Gavin Newsom's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: top one hundred donors and then see a map of
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: their homes and how close any affordable housing is to them,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: or even like a house that the median income earner
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in California could afford.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I'll bet it's like miles to.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: The nearest house that's under a million bucks, I mean
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: from a million.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Well, I hate this sort of law in general, but
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: if you're gonna let the super wealthy and connected get
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: away with not having to obey it, it's like ten
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: times worse.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there's plenty I disagree with Tucker on
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: these days, but that point he makes, it's what, Oh gosh,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: who's Peggy Noonan. We're talking about her editorial recently that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: was so good about why Trump has as much support
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: as he does, and she's talking about the protected.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Class and the unprotected class.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: You can unleash whatever, stupid ass policies or decisions or
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: economic moves or whatever. The protected class isn't going to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: suffer in iota. They'll be perfectly fine. And that's what
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: we're talking about here, the protected class that has gone
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: to lengths that are utterly comedic to make sure their
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: neighborhoods remain exclusively enclaves of the super rich and powerful,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: even while demanding the rest of us, you know, go
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: through whatever gyrations they demand to do the good that
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: they think a happening to do.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: They know how hypocritical they are when they are on
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: stage getting their oscar and talking about equality in the downtrodden,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: but they won't let any lower income housing in their neighborhood.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, do they realize that or do they somehow
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: do some mental gymnastics to get out of that.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I think, in my experience, including my personal experience inside
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: my own head. Uh, human beings have an unbelievable capacity
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: to shove something out.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Do they actually believe they're of like a different cast that.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Doesn't?
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I think they again, they have like a lurking guilt,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: but they keep it at bay.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Or I donate so much to charity that it's fine
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: that it doesn't allow.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and and the drop in property values would
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: be absolutely catastrophic, and you just you can't ask. I
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: would not ask somebody in you know, the San Fernando Valley,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: name your you know, your your suburb. I would not
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: ask somebody to have that sort of burden personally. And
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and so then they get to portray themselves as I'm
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I'm actually I'm not standing up for me. I'm standing
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: up for middle class people who who don't want to
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: see it so that it needs to be done care
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I'm in favor of affordable housing, but it needs to
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: be done in a way that's smart and efficient. And
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and wait a minute, what else would oh? And recognizes
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: environmental imperatives as right right, And we have a great
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: deal of green space here in Beverly Hills, and I
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: employ so many people. I employ gardeners and pool people
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and a grotto scrubber, jeez, grotto scrubber for ever ruined
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: the word grotto.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Grottos are no longer enjoyable.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: Used to like to go to the Fisherman's Grotto in
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: San Francisco when it was still open.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Never again, it's ruined. You get mild owing, you're mildewing
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: your grotto.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, I swear, I swear.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: Gross. Usually you're the one that keeps the class in
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: the operation.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: What are you doing?
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I've given up.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess that's it.