Entrepreneur. Builder. Governor? Rick Caruso on LA Fires and Running Government Like a Business

I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab.

This episode is a really big one for me.

This is the very first interview in my new podcast studio, which I built in the garage of the rental I'm living in, because I, like thousands of others, lost my home in the LA fires.

It has been seven months of rebuilding and red tape.

And while what happened here in Los Angeles is devastating, it is not the first or the last city to burn.

Wildfires are becoming more common, more destructive, and more complicated, especially with insurance companies pulling out of the very areas most at risk.

We need a blueprint, not just for how we rebuild after disasters, but for how we build stronger, more resilient cities in the first place.

Today's guest is Rick Caruso.

He is someone who understands how to do just that.

You might know Rick as the real estate mogul behind some of the most iconic properties in LA, the Grove, the Americana at Brand, Palisades Village, just to name a few.

Rick is also a philanthropist who has given millions of dollars to causes ranging from homelessness to education to public safety.

And in recent years, he's also stepped into the political arena, most notably as a mayoral candidate for LA in 2022.

Rick lost the race to LA's sitting mayor Karen Bass, who has been widely criticized for her handling of the fires from day one.

Bass appointed a chief recovery officer who was later let go, and it was understood that there would be a replacement, but no one was ever appointed.

In that gap, Rick has stepped up to be what feels like to me, the people's chief recovery officer.

He started a nonprofit called Steadfast LA dedicated to accelerating the rebuilding of Los Angeles, where he's taking a business person's approach to solving government problems.

In today's interview, we talk about exactly what went wrong, how city and state leaders failed us, and who should be held accountable.

We also get into the legal and financial black hole left behind and why Rick had to hire a private firefighting force just to protect the village he built.

There's been some headlines questioning whether Rick will throw his hat in another political ring with speculation around the race for mayor and also for governor.

So I asked the question, actually all of the questions.

Is he running for mayor again?

Is he running for governor?

What about president?

And finally, we talk about the real price of protection and what families can do right now to make sure they're not left vulnerable in the next disaster.

Rick Caruso, I am so honored to welcome you to New Rehab.

I am thrilled.

I really am.

I'm honored too.

Thank you.

This is so surreal because this is our first interview in our brand new studio it's beautiful by the way thank you so much

seven months after our brand new studio across the village was lost in the fire sorry about that thank you so i can't think of a better person to have as our very first interview

i always thought that i would have you on the show but i felt like i would just walk across the street and then find you with your dog and your whole team this is better and worse all at the same time.

But good resilience on your part.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So much resilience in this community.

While I was pregnant, I built a brand new studio in walking distance.

My whole community, my whole everything.

Pediatrician was in walking distance there.

Such a strong community.

I can't for the life of me, even this many months later, figure out what happened.

And if you were mayor, who would have been fired?

Well, let me just say it's clear now.

It was clear to me then, but it's clear now, I think, to everybody that the city was just not prepared and had more than adequate warnings to be prepared.

But I think you know this because you're very smart in business.

And

when you have somebody at the top of an organization, a CEO, a mayor, whatever the case may be,

that isn't well equipped, isn't qualified for the job, isn't competent, then what happens is that all of the organizational structure below that person will then include appointees that are equally unequipped.

Because really good people don't go to work for somebody that they don't look up to, respect,

and feel that

they can gain from working with them and for them.

And so at the very top of the chart is the head of the Department of Water and Power that didn't have the tank filled.

And even as of yesterday, we had massive outages in West L.A.,

rolling outages for two weeks.

We've had a situation out in the valley where people had to boil their water.

We're not a third world country.

This is Los Angeles.

But Los Angeles is operating like a third world country.

And so the mayor was not equipped.

She did not demand a plan.

The fire department was not pre-deployed.

I really do believe that most of the damage would have been avoided.

And most of the people that lost their homes would have still had their homes and most of the businesses would have still had their businesses had the city done their job right and had the mayor done her job right.

So you ran LA DWP.

Right.

You would get rid of who?

The head of DWP, the general manager, would have been held accountable and fired immediately.

I mean, I would have met with her.

I would have asked her, you know, what happened.

what her thinking was, but there's no excuse that that reservoir that had 7 million gallons of water that was needed to fight the fire that was empty, in spite of all the warnings that were coming out.

Now, we were prepared.

You know, we listened to the warnings.

We listened to the wind warnings.

Nobody could have missed the wind warnings.

I'll never forget the wind the night before.

The mayor says she didn't hear them.

I don't know how you could have missed them.

But we were prepared, and the city should have been prepared.

But I would have absolutely fired the head of the Department of Water and Power.

And now they're hiring fancy attorneys, right?

Thousands of dollars an hour, which says to me, A,

they know they're at fault for something.

And B, all of that money that you're spending on fancy attorneys should be going to fixing the system that

taxpayers paid

to the victims.

You know, it's an interesting dichotomy here is Edison came out in the Altadena fire and I think pretty clearly admitted fault and is working with all the victims on how you compensate them for the losses.

This may be a place where the city just wants to admit we made a mistake and let's figure out how we're fair with the people that were victimized and lost their homes and lost their businesses.

Because the money, to your point, that's going to be spent on a lawsuit with the lawyers will be tens and tens of millions of dollars that would be much better used to go to help people who lost their homes and businesses.

And years.

And years.

Exactly right.

And time.

Yep.

It's our most valuable time.

And aggravation.

You know,

what a lot of people don't understand is it's, and you do, obviously, and I see it with my kids who lost their homes.

It's one thing, and it's heartbreaking to lose your home.

Just heartbreaking.

But what's even worse than that is the loss of a lifestyle that you loved, whether it was Altadina, Malibu, or the Palisades.

It was the loss of walking down the street, seeing your neighbor, walking your kids to school.

And it was also the loss of just sort of being settled in life.

And now life for so many people, thousands and thousands of people, are unsettled.

And it's anxiety provoking.

And there's a real mental illness concern that I think so many people have on the pressure that people are going through.

So the city, in my opinion, should be doing everything it can to make moving back into their community, rebuilding their home, as easy as possible to alleviate the stress and the pressure that people are feeling.

At At no fault to these people, by the way.

Nobody did anything wrong who lived there.

Everything was done wrong, who were entrusted and took an oath to protect them.

They failed their duty.

So, should there be a recall?

I remember living through the recall.

Yeah.

Chaos.

Yeah, I don't think, you know, I came out against the recall for the mayor because

The timing is just wrong.

The city would have had to have spent $20 or $30 million putting it on a ballot.

By the time it would have gotten on a ballot, even if it would have qualified, and it probably would have because there's so much obviously disappointment in her performance.

But the actual vote would have been very close to a vote that's already going to happen.

You know, we're going to vote next June,

what, 10, 11 months from now, on whether or not she should be reelected or somebody else should be re-elected.

And so I just felt it was better,

let's wait for the regularly scheduled vote.

Let's save the money.

The city's already a billion dollars over budget,

not add and compound to that problem, and let the people come and vote in June, which I hope they come out in droves.

Me too.

Yeah.

You had to hire a private fire to protect the village.

That's not something that anyone should have to do with all the millions, I'm assuming.

Or you can tell me how much in taxes you pay.

That should be taken care of.

How much does something like that cost?

It's in the millions.

It's in the millions to do it.

Listen, I think from my standpoint, from the commercial standpoint, and I think the Getty did the same thing also, and thank God the Getty was saved.

It was an investment that made a lot of sense.

It made a lot of sense because we knew we were in a fire zone.

We designed the village with non-combustible materials knowing we were in a fire zone.

And we have these plans from an operating standpoint as a company because because we need to be prepared for disasters.

It's just like we know there's going to be an earthquake.

We can't prevent it.

We know there's going to be winds.

We know there's going to be fires.

We can't prevent it, but we need to be prepared for it.

And it's the right thing to do.

And also, our insurance company is really grateful that we saved them hundreds of millions of dollars.

So it's a win-win for them.

It's a win-win for us.

And by the way, it's a win-win for the city and the community because one is it freed up the city's resources to try to save the residential areas.

Our private firefighters not only saved our buildings, but saved all the buildings around us, including across the street.

And so now there is at least a base of a downtown that's going to come back.

And we're being very supportive of all of our fellow owners, landowners, and businesses to help them come back.

We're going to be investing millions of dollars of our own money in street improvements to make it very charming and beautiful, even more charming and beautiful than it was.

And

I'm really proud of the fact that our team did a great job saving the village and the buildings around us.

I mean, obviously, you can afford it, but that's not the point.

We have an agreement with the taxes that we pay with the city.

The first thing is that there's going to be water in the hydrants when we need it.

I think so many people are so fed up with California because of the high taxes that we pay for basic services like that that they've left.

For the business community that you're so tapped into, for those who stuck it out and said, okay, I'll pay the high taxes.

But now there is no water in the hydrants when we need it most.

Enough is enough.

I'm out.

Have you talked to any specific people?

We lost Elon, of course, but other business leaders or companies that are leaving because of this?

Yeah, many are, unfortunately.

I think everybody that I talk to

is willing to pay the high taxes, including me, as long as you're getting something back for it.

And I think a lot of people now are very frustrated that they're not, both at a city level and a state level.

And there's more and more businesses that are leaving.

But even worse than the businesses that are leaving are the businesses that are closing because the business environment is so tough in LA City, because the business environment is so expensive in LA City and so overregulated in LA City.

So you have an enormous amount, the highest rate ever, of small businesses closing due to a weakness in business.

And you see it in the city budget now for the first time in decades, the revenue into the city is declining.

So you don't have to be a math major to figure out when you have declining revenues and you have increased expenses, a billion dollars of being over budget because you made some really bad decisions in giving people a whole lot of bonuses and raises,

you're going to have an implosion that's going to happen.

It's unsustainable.

And the rate of business is closing.

Then on top of it, what worries me is there's not net new investment coming into the city because people are worried about investing in the city.

So bankers are concerned about it.

Investors are concerned about it.

We have the lowest amount of housing starts in LA City in years and years and years.

So there's no new building going on in the city, which increases the cost of living for everybody.

It's all fixable.

And there's a really bright end of the tunnel.

We just have to get the right leadership to change the trajectory so we get to where everybody deserves to be.

And they don't even know if they can get insurance.

Insurance is a real problem.

Yeah, it's a serious problem.

There's a lot of discussion generally about business people in politics, a la doge.

Do business people belong in all aspects of politics?

You know, sometimes budget cuts can't be indiscriminate, especially with health and human services.

But when it comes to something like this, what could you, as a business person, have done to better handle the response in the recovery efforts by the city?

I mean, they're spending tons of money on these high paid consultants.

All of this stuff is just commonly negotiated in the business world.

Right, right.

Well,

I look at it it two ways.

One is, and I was really clear on this during my campaign,

we should be setting our priorities right in our budget.

That number one priority is the safety of our residents.

So your police are adequately funded and your fire department is adequately funded.

Because I was calling out during my campaign that the fire department was completely inadequately funded.

and was not prepared to respond to a disaster.

We have an enormous amount of equipment that's still sitting in mothballs because they don't have the money to repair these fire engines, which is crazy.

We're one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

We need to get things underground quickly.

Infrastructure needs to be built for the next hundred years.

And we need to be tapping into the smartest, most innovative people in the world who, by the way, live here and want to help.

And

that's what we've done at Steadfast.

I pulled together some of the brightest people and asked them to donate their time and their talent, and they're doing it.

And it's incredible what's going on.

But we're fighting the system every day, and we're winning a lot of those fights, but it shouldn't be a fight.

The city needs to have the tone and the attitude to all the residents, we've got your back.

We are here for you.

We want you to reinvest.

We want you to rebuild your community.

We want you to rebuild your house.

We will be here to help you every step of the way to do it.

Because

now

we're asking everybody, invest your time, invest your money, and come back into a community.

And the city's got to be shoulder to shoulder with you.

And so that's the part that we're trying to do.

And I think we're doing a good job at Steadfast LA and Altadena, Palisades, and Pasadena, is giving people hope.

and giving people the support that they need and the encouragement as much as we can to rebuild and come back.

You talked about the city, but I'll press you and say it's the county and the state as well.

Are there any specific missed opportunities that you saw in the city, the county, or the state's efforts that could have been helped by a business person like negotiating with some of these high-paid consultants?

Well, I think the negotiating of, you know, the spending of the millions of dollars on consultants.

And just bringing in people, the right people, right?

It's one thing to say, I'm going to go spend millions of dollars.

Are you spending millions of dollars with the right people?

The city spent $10 million with Haggerty consulting, whatever the name of the firm was.

Nobody even knows what they did, right?

We need to be outsourcing the undergrounding of the power lines, certainly through DWP, certainly with DWP crews, but there aren't enough DWP crews.

to take care of the whole city and do the undergrounding.

And we need to be doing that now.

So you need to negotiate those deals.

I mean, I would, which I told the governor and I told the mayor, break palisades up into different sections and give each company the competition of undergrounding to see who does it the fastest and the least expensive.

Create competition.

Drive the price down.

Everybody benefits from it.

But, you know, that's what a business person, if...

you know, no different when we build our projects, we watch every dime.

You bid it out.

We bid it out, but we still watch every dime.

And we're pushing the schedule because we want to be ahead of schedule.

We want to be below budget.

And we're trying to do that, obviously, in these devastated areas.

Well, you stepped up in such a generous way to fill a lot of these holes that, frankly, should have been filled by the government.

What's the tally at this point?

Are you keeping a budget?

Like, how percent.

What Cain and I are putting into it?

Yeah.

We're putting in a lot.

We're putting in millions and millions of dollars, but that's okay.

Listen, I look at it.

This city has given me so much.

This region has given me so much.

I started my business here.

I raised my family here.

We've got four incredible kids.

We have been beyond blessed and fortunate.

So

I don't even think about it, and neither does Tina, the money that we're giving back and putting back into the community.

And we're going to continue to do it.

And I'm not leaving this community, and I'm not going to turn my back on the Palisades or Malibu or Altadena.

And if it's sort of the last capstone I do in my career, that's fine.

I feel very fulfilled.

And let me just give you one example.

And we're going to be talking more about this

at Steadfast.

We put together a partnership with Samara, which are the manufactured homes, and with the great generosity of the founder of Samara, Joe Gebby, put together $15 million

and we will be starting to deliver homes to low-income low-income folks who lost their homes in Altadena, Palisades, and Malibu.

And I got to tell you something.

I've made the first few calls to the people that are getting a home

incredibly emotional.

Couldn't be more rewarding.

To be able to call somebody and say,

you know, you're going to have a new home for free.

It's going to be on the lot that you raised your family, back in the community that you loved.

It's not going to cost you a dime, and we're going to do everything we can to get you in there before the holidays.

And that is worth

a thousand times the cost of that home and the effort it took to make all of that happen.

But a lot of people have leaned in to make that happen.

So

I feel like I'm really lucky being a part of this.

So you and Tina are not late at night saying like, honey, maybe this should be a lower percentage of our net worth contributing to the history.

Never Never even think about that.

Never even think about that.

Is there amount of money that you think the victims should be entitled to?

You know, it looks like the victims of the Maui fire are getting $4 billion.

The number of structures burned in the L.A.

fires were seven times that, so

seven times $428 billion.

Well, listen, I think...

I think people should be fairly compensated for losing their homes and businesses.

And whether that comes from insurance or it comes from the city or the county or the state, yes.

And I think the federal government needs to step up.

And I'm really disappointed we don't see the help coming from the federal government.

And we need their money to help with infrastructure and rebuilding and giving life support to a lot of people.

I don't think that's right.

And the federal government in many disasters around the country has stepped up.

But we're living in a world of politics that's unfortunate.

But this problem is so much bigger than the politics, and the average person should not be paying a price for the politics.

I can attest to that.

Right when you were coming in, I just got a text that said I had an SBA notification.

Still haven't been able to get an SBA loan.

That's ridiculous.

That's a really good point you raised.

That is so ridiculous and such an easy lift, right?

For the federal government to easily say, and the president should say,

everybody gets an SBA loan approved within 30 days.

I mean, come on.

What are you worried about?

Somebody's going to waste the money?

Okay.

If somebody wastes the money, shame on them.

You'll go figure that out and go, you know, hold them accountable for that.

But 99.9% of the people, in my opinion, I always look at the world this way: 99.9% of the people are good people wanting to do the right thing.

You know, we've got a state that's $12 billion over budget.

Start managing yourself and do the right thing and take excess money and give it back to people that need it.

Same in the city of Los Angeles.

Well, should LA be doing the Olympics now?

I mean, as prestigious as it is, when we have an area the size of two Manhattans that we're just destroyed, should we be spending all this money on infrastructure that's temporary?

Yes, and I tell you why we should do it, but we got to do it right.

We should do it because it will be an economic boon to the city and this region.

And so many businesses, so many small businesses, independent businesses

will flourish if it's done right.

So yes,

we want the tourists here.

We want the city of Los Angeles on the world stage.

But we want to be in the world stage and say, we are the best city in the world.

And let's show you why we're the best city in the world, the most beautiful city in the world, right?

And so we got to do it the right way, but you don't want to lose that opportunity.

It's an incredible opportunity.

But that would be like saying,

you've got the ability to have a great podcast, but it's going to take an enormous amount of work so do you avoid creating a great podcast or do you lean in and do it you leaned in and did it so you didn't avoid the challenge you rise to the challenge and our mayor and our city council and our leadership needs to rise to the challenge and put this city at the forefront of the world in spite of the disaster and say look at how strong we are look at how resilient we are look at how beautiful this region is and i think it's an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the strength and the beauty and the resilience of the people of L.A.

Absolutely.

So we can do both.

Of course, we can.

Do all the above.

You've been on a lot of shows lately.

Rick, everybody is asking you, and I'm hoping that the answer will be different this time.

Okay.

I love you.

I love you more.

I like that painting.

Thank you so much.

But back to the question.

Okay, fair enough.

Are you running for mayor?

Hold on to your wallets.

Money rehab will be right back.

And now for some more money rehab.

I am looking at running for mayor.

I am looking at running a governor.

I'm getting a lot of people that are pushing me in both directions, honestly.

It's no secret.

It got posted.

I was up in Sacramento last night at a bunch of meetings.

I feel very honored.

I've got people

encouraging me to do both, either run for mayor or run for governor.

And

we're doing our work.

I got a great political team, a small but mighty team.

And I'm going to make a decision at some point down the road soon.

I love public service, so I want to do something.

Obviously, staying a private citizen is an option and giving back through Steadfast and our family foundation, but I want to do something.

So I just need to look at the data.

I want to do what's right for the family.

I want to do what's right for the city.

I want to do what's right for the state.

And at the end of the day, I want to do something that really makes a difference in people's lives.

And that's how I'm really thinking about it.

What can I do that is the most impactful?

to people's lives in a really good way.

And that will be my capstone of probably my career.

And what a wonderful capstone that would be if I'm lucky enough to get elected.

Have you ruled out running for president?

I don't think that job's open.

So

I tell you honestly, somebody said to me last night when I was up in Sacramento, should really run for governor because then the next logical step is president.

And my response in front of people was,

whatever job I decide to do, I just want to go in, work really hard, 24-7,

make a difference.

The last thing I'm thinking about is the next job.

It's not about a career change.

And honestly, what I said to him last night was, I just became a grandfather.

Tina and I just had our first grandchild.

Congratulations.

And what I really want to do is get home and see little Luca.

And so this is all about me wanting to

work really hard and do something really good.

And that's what motivates me and not the next job.

But are we 100% sure that we're a Democrat?

Yes, I am.

I am a Democrat.

Forever.

Are we changing again?

No, we're not changing.

And let me tell you, I'm a very different Democrat, though, and that's probably didn't help me the last time around because people didn't understand.

I'm very moderate.

I'm socially liberal.

I'm fiscally conservative.

I'm a pragmatist in so many ways.

And I think, and I hope, maybe I should say I hope, but I do think, I think people should care less about the party and a lot more about the person.

We elected a lot of people because of a party, and we have been massively disappointed.

And I think the country, the state, and the city has been hurt because of party politics.

And let's get back to electing people that are actually competent.

And I'm very middle of the road.

I'm very much about common sense, and I'm very much about bringing people together because I think that's the only way we make progress.

And I'm not an ideologue.

If you've got a better idea than I have and your idea is a Republican-based idea, but it's going to be the best for the people, let's adopt that idea and make it work.

And if it's a Democrat idea, let's adopt that idea and start working together because what I see happening now is just harmful.

And the extremes, I think we need to tune out and start listening to everybody in the middle.

And if the middle votes,

because I think there's a lot of apathy, which is understandable, but if the middle gets out there and votes, the changes will be dramatic.

Well, politics is wackadoodle.

So

all I can say is that I want a politician who is kind when no one is watching, and I can attest to that from you.

I would go to the best Italian restaurant at the village very often.

There was one time I couldn't get my chair out.

You'll never remember this, but I will never forget.

I was stuck and the table was really heavy.

And I was trying to like ask for help for something, and you clocked it from the other side of the room, and you came and helped me.

And it was just a really kind, not big deal gesture, but that's the person that I have witnessed

firsthand.

So if you do think about your decisions and your jobs coming up, let a Palisade sister know.

Okay.

You have a deal.

I promise you that.

Thank you so much.

You put $100 million into the mayoral campaign.

Yep.

Was that earmarked or budgeted?

Obviously, we're a money show, so we want to follow the money trail.

If you were running, hypothetically, is there an amount of money that you would think about?

Yeah, I didn't plan going into the mayor's race to spend $100 million.

I have no regret spending it because I look at it,

it elevated issues that people needed to talk about.

We were not talking about the homeless situation that we had in Los Angeles and that could be solved.

We were not talking about the problem with corruption in the city of Los Angeles and it should not be tolerated.

As of today, we got more charges against a city council person.

I mean, I think, you know, you got almost as many people that have been indicted in the city that are actually working in the city.

It's ridiculous.

Shouldn't tolerate it.

And frankly, the mayor should come out and condemn it, and she won't.

And she doesn't have the courage or the backbone, in my opinion, to call out a friend.

And you just can't do it and he should step down does she talk to you like will she answer your calls um from time to time but not all the time you know we had an exchange uh a text exchange exchange over the weekend and then we had another one on sunday and she hasn't responded to that one where i respectfully suggested to her that she enforce the law

which she isn't enforcing in many instances, and it was having an impact on a community that was really harmful, actually, to a bunch of very young children who had to experience hate and terrible language because of allowing a protest that was illegal,

that was in the middle of 2,500 children with their moms and their dads enjoying the afternoon.

It was just so wrong.

But it just shows what goes wrong with this city when you don't enforce the law and you become lawless.

We also have a proposal, you know, which

is very important, I think, to so many people around the city to waive the ULA tax, talking about money, waive the ULA tax.

And we found a solution of how to do it.

The city tried to do it.

The mayor tried to do it, said it was impossible.

I had the lawyers at Steadfast look at it.

There's a path to do it.

It will save people an enormous amount of money that they could then put back into their homes or into their retirement if they're elderly and not pay this tax, which which they shouldn't because they lost their home at no fault to them.

How do you get taxed on losing your home?

I mean, it's crazy.

And we've had a tough time getting the mayor's attention on it.

And that's disappointing.

But we don't give up.

But in terms of the money running down the road, if I ran, I'm going to raise the money.

And if I have to add to it, I'll add to it.

And you'll keep texting her.

And I'll keep texting her.

And I'll keep texting.

Frankly, I text the county supervisors and I text the governor.

Everybody is on that text.

And I'm always respectful and I'm always kind, but I'm always straightforward and I'm always honest because they're getting paid to do a job.

And step up and do your job.

And if you disagree with me, fantastic.

I'm not always right.

Text me back and say, you know what, I don't think that's the right approach.

And then let's have a discussion about that.

But don't not respond.

Do you have a group thread with like the governor and the mayor?

I don't know.

I'm on a group.

That would be be an interesting group, wouldn't it?

Have the board of supervisors, the mayor, and the governor.

No, I do it individually, and

I don't share those texts.

I talk about it from time to time, but I don't share the text.

And actually,

you know, just to be fair in calling out people,

I'd give a shout-out, you know, to our governor.

At every step of the way, when I asked him to do something, he's done it.

And he's been very responsive.

So I and he has been very helpful in areas where the city was not moving quickly and and he put some pressure on the city and it helped.

What was the last thing you asked him for?

We had developed an AI model to do plan check within a matter of hours versus a matter of months.

The city would not adopt it.

The county was not adopting it.

And so we went to the governor.

We spent $2 million

to put it together so there was no cost to the city.

And you can imagine you want to rebuild your home, you go through the process now, it's going to take you six months for a plan check.

Now it's going to take you two hours, save you thousands of thousands of dollars in a lot of time.

It was ridiculous they weren't adopting it.

Went to the governor and said, Can you, in some form or fashion, push this to convince the city and the county to do it?

And he did.

And we got it adopted.

All it takes is, I wonder what he's thinking when he sees like a Rick Raiser text pop up.

I don't know.

What now?

Hopefully, get along.

We get along just fine.

I get along with everybody just fine.

Well, political candidates in New York, not that we're talking with one, but they typically get asked what their deli order is.

Yeah.

So what would the equivalent be in Los Angeles?

Langer's.

My favorite deli is Langer's, the number 15, the pastrami.

It's just the most amazing sandwich.

There's nobody better than Norm Langer.

I'm sorry.

I love Norm.

I've been going to Norm's for years.

Go to and support Norm.

That's a business that needs to be supported.

That's in the middle of a hellhole because the city's not doing their job at MacArthur Park.

And the people that are living and dying on the streets around them, Norm now has to close early because it's so unsafe.

It's just not right.

But it's one of the great institutions.

And I'm going to throw one other one in there, can I?

Well, yeah, I thought you were going to say coffee or Erewhon Order would be the LA equivalent of Deli, but you went Delhi.

I'm here for it.

I mean, listen, Erewhon's fantastic.

You know,

we do business with.

Are you a Haley Bieber smoothie kind of guy?

You bite into a Langers, wow.

That rye bread, that pastrami, it's wow.

I go down there with the kids.

It's, it's incredible.

We have a greatest time down there.

That

and Felipe's.

Have you been to Philippe's?

No.

Oh my God.

It's an institution.

My life.

Okay.

You got to go down.

It's across from Union Station.

It's been there forever.

They take the credit for inventing the beef dip sandwich.

There's another restaurant called Coles, which unfortunately just closed.

Another sad story of a small business.

They used to take credit for inventing the beef dip sandwich.

I call it Felipe's.

Some people call it Philippe's.

It's been there for, I don't know, maybe 100 years.

We love going there as a family.

The best beef dip sandwich, the best hot mustard is Felipe's mustard.

Okay.

It's making me so much.

I'm going to take you down there.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

Okay.

We end end all of our episodes by asking guests for a tip that listeners can take straight to the bank.

I would love to have you back to talk about how you've built such an incredible empire starting in Boyle Heights.

But for now, I would love one piece of advice that you could give families to make sure that they're protected from natural disasters.

There was a lot that I didn't know, and frankly, I was embarrassed.

I talk about financial advice.

on a daily show, run a financial literacy podcast network, and have learned so by going through it myself that I didn't know.

You know, it's not easy because people,

even if you're really well educated and in business, you know, you don't have the basis of the knowledge to ask all the questions that need to be asked.

Do you have the right insurance?

And are the premiums all in the right place?

And do you have the right coverage?

And all these kind of things.

What I think is the most important thing, and I've always tried to do it, I've always had a plan B

in anything that I do.

And part of plan B is also maintaining liquidity, maintaining enough cash.

The most important line item in any business, whether it's your personal balance sheet or your business balance sheet, is the top line cash.

And what I would say is for every dollar that comes in, And I know it's a struggle sometimes to make payments, take a percentage of that and keep it in cash.

Invest it in things that are safe, whether it's bonds, T-bills, or otherwise really good stocks, you know, that are what I call consider franchise value stocks.

Apple has a franchise value, right?

Microsoft, franchise value, things like that.

There's a lot of great stocks out there.

I don't want to just pick two.

But

keep liquidity and cash and build it up over time.

And if, remember, if you get six, seven percent, that money doubles very quickly.

So, the art of compounding, before you know it,

you've got a nice chunk of cash there.

And God forbid there's a disaster or a problem, you can lean on that, and it gives you that little peace of mind at night to sleep a little bit better.

But I'm a big believer in cash,

cash is queen, as I say, and sometimes king.

It can be both, it can be both, that's right.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network.

I'm your host, Nicole Lappin.

Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie.

Our researcher is Emily Holmes.

Do you need some Money Rehab?

And let's be honest, we all do.

So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com, to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me.

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And lastly, thank you.

No, seriously, thank you.

Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.