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The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer
Disaster Zones & Democracy: Nico Ruderman’s Bid to Rebuild California
00:50:09
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- [00:00]
Nico Ruderman
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.
- [00:02]
Spencer Pratt
Now.
- [00:02]
Nico Ruderman
I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.
- [00:09]
Spencer Pratt
So I thought it would be fun.
- [00:11]
Nico Ruderman
If we made $15 bills, but it.
- [00:14]
Spencer Pratt
Turns out that's very illegal.
- [00:17]
Nico Ruderman
So there goes my big idea for the commercial.
- [00:19]
Spencer Pratt
Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
- [00:22]
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- [01:37]
Nico Ruderman
So you.
- [01:37]
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- [01:48]
Heidi Wood
Oh no, that's all glass.
- [01:50]
Spencer Pratt
Welcome back to the Fame Game. We have a very special guest that I'm going to get to know as well as Heidi today on this episode. I only know who he is because on Saturday he was one of the public speakers at the Stop SB79 rally in the Palisades Village and he said everything that pumped me up. And so this is Nico and Nico.
- [02:16]
Nico Ruderman
Is running for running for state Senate in California.
- [02:19]
Spencer Pratt
As you know, people want to know.
- [02:21]
Nico Ruderman
What party I've been a Democrat my whole life but I'm really pretty independent thinker so I'll always be a Democrat. But you know, I care More about issues than party.
- [02:33]
Heidi Wood
I love that.
- [02:34]
Spencer Pratt
There we go.
- [02:35]
Heidi Wood
Yes.
- [02:35]
Spencer Pratt
And so your background, I just heard you telling the New York Times on set here that you were in reality television sound.
- [02:46]
Nico Ruderman
Yeah. I've spent about 26 years working in film and TV as a sound mixer. Worked my way up, worked in a lot of reality tv. And that's been my world for a long time. And, you know, production's really kind of died the past few years. At the same time, I kind of started to get into politics kind of similar way as you, really, out of just frustration of the system and just being angry at what was going on in my neighborhood. You know, my house didn't burn down, but I live in Venice and we're dealing with Mike Bonin in 2020 and 21.
- [03:19]
Spencer Pratt
So did you start by just going to City Council? Because what I've been learning recently is how important your actual local politicians are to the bigger scheme of things than, as a wise person recently said, then, the celebrity of going and talking just national politics, when really these people like the LA City Council and Karen Bass and these people actually affect your life more than, say, the president necessarily.
- [03:48]
Nico Ruderman
Right? No, absolutely. I mean, I moved to LA in my late 20s and didn't really care much about politics, especially local politics. And as I got older and kind of saw what was going on in my neighborhood, just got more and more curious as to why some things were good, why some things were bad. And the more I kind of dove into it, I realized that local politics is so much more important to your daily life than national politics. It really affects. I mean, it can have a drastic effect for the good or for the bad. And so around 2020, I was upset about encampments around schools in Venice and particularly my son's school, and was trying to work with the council office. Well, how do we fix this? We talked to the council member and try and get this fixed. And that was a conversation that went nowhere over time and kind of shined us on and gaslit us saying, oh, we're going to do this. In the end, really, we got the message that he wasn't going to do anything. Because cleaning up encampments doesn't cure homelessness. Even though we'd had exploding meth RVs, we'd had sex trafficking, we'd had dead bodies on the sidewalk during school, drop off all the worst things you could possibly imagine in front of a school. And our council member who just told us to our face that he didn't care. And so I got really upset and I With a neighbor of mine, launched the Bonnin recall. I spent a year of my life running and co leading the Bonnen recall.
- [05:20]
Spencer Pratt
Wow. I owe you a thank you because that person is the individual that tried to put in a homeless encampment at the Will Rogers Beach.
- [05:27]
Nico Ruderman
Absolutely.
- [05:28]
Spencer Pratt
Where all the kids go for camp. And you know, that was the. To me, that was the craziest thing I had witnessed.
- [05:36]
Nico Ruderman
No, it's funny, I. So I actually remember seeing your name, your signature on the. On the recall.
- [05:43]
Spencer Pratt
Oh, I was all in because that was because.
- [05:45]
Nico Ruderman
Because I would. I would spend. I would be up all night going through, verifying all signatures, getting a good count of what we had. And I remember it was like two in the morning. I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking a beer, and I was like, spencer Pratt. Spencer Pratt. And. And I think it was several. Several members of your family. I think there were several Pratts on the same petition.
- [06:02]
Spencer Pratt
My mom is the queen of. So if there's anything going on or was in the Palisades community, she was like having a. Like my own publicist in the sense that she's like, have you. I only knew because my mom told me about on next door. But thank you so much for that. And. And so. But I guess now, because I was just complaining about a different city council person that people are like. And they're like, well, you need to vote for her again. I'm like, why would I do that? And like the her. The person going for her spot is Bonen's protege. I'm like, oh, like, it just. They just keep coming.
- [06:40]
Heidi Wood
How did you decide to choose of all the positions to run for state senate? Like, what do you think the impact is in that position? And how would you choose? There's so many different positions. It's a little overwhelming to pick.
- [06:55]
Nico Ruderman
Sure. I mean, the funny thing about politics is you kind of have to go after something that's attainable and doable. And Ben Allen is termed out. But I've been following. Once I started getting interested in city politics, I was like, well, this is bigger than the city. Where's all the money come from? Money comes from the state. And how is it decided what money goes where? And I started learning about housing first and the homeless industrial complex. And, you know, living in Venice, it really affected us. We live in a containment zone in Venice. It was manufactured. And so really dealing with that, I just got more and more curious. I think very similar to you. I just started digging and reading and talking to anybody who would talk to me about what was going on and really just couldn't. It was like a car crash. I just couldn't stop looking. And so I started learning about housing first and the housing first policies around homelessness and how it's really been detrimental to our state and to the, really, to the homeless population as well. And so, you know, Tracy park is in office. You know, we got, we got her into office. And I really see a hole in Sacramento. You know, Sacramento is very. A lot of their votes are based on ideology and special interests and not really representing the people. And, you know, my whole journey began trying to help on my community and represent the people. And so that was, that was how I decided to take my stab at it. And I actually was going to launch in January, January 14th, and then January 7th, your community burned down. I couldn't do it. So several months later, some friends of mine said, maybe it's time, but I'd already decided. And then I was just like, I'm not gonna do this. I can't.
- [08:44]
Heidi Wood
Would you move there or would you commute?
- [08:47]
Nico Ruderman
You have to commute. You have to live in the district where you represent. But, but, but people commute up there for like the week and go up there and they fly back and forth. Some people commute daily, some people, they.
- [08:58]
Spencer Pratt
Commute daily to Sacramento.
- [08:59]
Nico Ruderman
I think some people in LA might, because, you know, I mean, it depends on what part of California you're in. Might take a lot longer to get there. I think a lot of people get apartments up there, though, and just up there for the week, for the work week, and then come back and then.
- [09:13]
Spencer Pratt
So Ben Allen, do you have a relationship with him? Like, as in, do you, like, have a dialogue with him?
- [09:19]
Nico Ruderman
Yeah, I've gotten to know him and we talk some. I didn't know him before, before this. I mean, I, I had, I had met with him on neighborhood council meetings. I'm on the Venice Neighborhood Council. I met with him on neighborhood council meetings. He didn't really know who I was, but since I've launched my campaign, I've gotten to know him pretty well.
- [09:35]
Spencer Pratt
So why were you there Saturday? Speaking on. Against SB 79. That's the like.
- [09:41]
Nico Ruderman
Sure, sure. Well, I'm, I'm very opposed to SB 79. I think there's a lot of areas of California that definitely need housing, but this one size fits all bill gonna do a lot more damage to the states that. Than it will help, I believe. Now, we decided to be up in the Palisades for that rally. It was a statewide rally. We had. I don't know, like 12 spots around the state that were coordinated all at the same time. But the Palisades was symbolic because it represents one of the biggest dangers of these statewide housing mandates because they don't take into account things like fire egress, like how do you get out? And there's nothing written into it. And I know Ben Allen told me he's at times tried to get carve outs for high fire severity zones. And it really, he said he just had a lot of pushback and was never able to get it through. And so I actually wrote model legislation. Since I'm running, I've decided I'm going to base my campaign on. I'm going to just write model bills and that this is what I think needs to be changed. I'm not going to do any rah rah campaigning. I'm just going to just go start trying to do the job and trying to fix things. And so I wrote about a month ago a bill dealing with disaster recovery zones and higher fire severity zones that exempts disaster recovery zones and higher fire severity zones from any state mandates and disaster recovery zones until it's rebuilt. And you can do an evaluation. Are you familiar with AB747?
- [11:21]
Spencer Pratt
No. What's that?
- [11:22]
Nico Ruderman
It was a bill that came out to basically require local governments to evaluate evacuation routes out of neighborhoods and determine whether the evacuation routes are adequate. Real, real brief summary of it. But this bill requires that evaluation to determine if the high fire severity zone or disaster recovery zone can take more density, can take more housing, brings more cars, more people, and you wind up with a gridlock that I'm sure you saw trying to get out of the Palisades. People were getting out of the cars, trying to run away because their cars were stuck in traffic. And so I think it's criminal to force more density into areas where it's just a danger. I mean, you wouldn't build a house without proper fire egress. That's just California building code. So you shouldn't build a community without adequate fire egress.
- [12:14]
Spencer Pratt
So I just recently had this conversation and the individual's response was, have you seen any disaster movies? And in the disaster movies, everyone's stuck in traffic. And this individual's argument was, well, that's why you should go out on foot or on bike. And my argument is that most of the people in the Palisades were, what people don't realize were almost senior citizens, like 16 up. And like my mom, my mom could barely, I love you, mom, but she can barely Go downstairs, you know, so where now you're going to be like, oh, certain people, you're going to have them picked up and they're going to have cars. And is anyone going to listen to that in an emergency? I was talking to this security guard that was going, he worked near the Palisades village and I was talking to him on Saturday and he said that when he was going to check the gridlock, he was on his E bike and he said people started jumping out of their cars. And he said out of the like Will Smith movies, I don't know which one he's talking about, people were trying grab his bike from him. So now we create this thing where if with this individual, I was talking to his theory of everyone go on foot, people are going to mob each other to God knows what happens in that type of emergency and get trampled and stampeded like you're almost better. So, so that argument.
- [13:31]
Heidi Wood
So not to mention children. There are so many children. I evacuated with my small child who was 2, barely 2, and then my other child who had 104 fever for four days and couldn't walk. So how on earth would I evacuate with my two children when I barely could get out of our house in our car? And the traffic, they weren't just stuck in traffic. They were instructed to have to leave by police, by other people. If you didn't want to leave your car, you had no choice at that moment too. Like I had friends who were running with their kids in their arms out of traffic. So now you're telling me we're going to add more endangerment to something that was just proven to. I mean everyone's, we're thankful everyone's alive that could have gone way worse and been way more disastrous. So to even be like, it's just, it's shocking, it's so devastating that they still, it feels like don't care and that they're not putting the people first and this community first. And we want to rebuild this community that we lived in and existed in and was taken from us. So to have the opportunity, I want my children to still be here and to have that life here that we worked so hard to have them be able to live in. So to have this completely be gone and have Palisades be gone and rebuild it as something that's not working for the rest of la, that's not working for everyone else. Like you're saying with the housing and the homelessness and the dangers and the situation, it's just, it's Very frustrating it is.
- [14:58]
Nico Ruderman
And, you know, One of the YIMBY's biggest arguments is, you know, well, not everybody's going to have cars, you know, because there's not enough parking designed. And SB79, there's no parking requirements or there's very little parking requirements. And their argument is, well, everybody, if you have a transit corridor, everybody's going to take the bus. You know what Metro did, half hour after the fire started, they shut down all service in the Palisades. So their argument is, well, everybody's going to take the bus out for evacuation. It doesn't hold water because the first thing Metro did was shut down the buses.
- [15:34]
Spencer Pratt
And then the other argument I deal with, when people fight me on this, SB79, it's like, oh, it won't apply to the palaces. I'm like, all they have to do is add more buses to the route. That's here on Sunset. Now, it applies to all the houses, except for maybe the top of the Highlands, but anywhere within a half a mile. Also, what I've learned now is when people spend enough money, these developers, the black rocks, the vanguard, all these people, they can, they can lobby, whatever, they can get a new bill made. So the idea of passing something now that maybe doesn't affect. And so I keep saying to people, I don't, you know, I'm not fighting for the state of California, SB79, like you are. I'm specifically like, it can't come to the Palisades. So Newsom needs to do an executive order putting a protection on what he and Karen Bass said. We're going to let you build back your community or whatever. Bs, Fake quote. Yeah, I'm adding to it, I'm assuming, but that was the logic.
- [16:33]
Nico Ruderman
Well, that's exactly what my bill does. It protects disaster recovery, all disaster recovery zones. By the way, you know, in Venice a few weeks ago, you remember, we had a tsunami warning. We live in a tsunami evacuation zone. Where I live, you know, there's fires, but there's all kinds of other disasters. We have earthquakes, we have, you know, mudslides, we have floods. So it would really apply to all disaster recovery zones. Because evacuation, it's not just fires people need to evacuate from. So this bill would protect high fire severity zones and disaster recovery zones. And then if after it's recovered, they do a study and say, well, you know what, they can take a little more density, fine. If it's safe, great. But safety should come first. It's just insane that a this episode.
- [17:22]
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- [17:43]
Heidi Wood
There.
- [17:47]
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- [18:17]
Spencer Pratt
Argument once the individual brought up the the movie and going on foot and I said, okay, well right now, you know, I'm part of a lawsuit. We're suing LADWP because they didn't have water for the Palisades. And their argument is, oh, this town was never designed to provide protection to fires at like a large scale urban fire. So if they're right now with how the density was saying oh, they don't have enough water or it's the whole system's not built for that. So unless you're going to redesign the whole water system, we're already setting up so we're going to put 10 story buildings on a lot. There was a single family home and what happens is their, their argument is when the houses start burning down the pipes and, and the water starts shooting out. So how much water is going to shoot out of 10 story buildings that we've added to the Palisades to again to create more affordable housing. Which it's clear from what I've been told California needs is the is the story. But again, I don't believe it's fair for a community that had their entire existence taken off the map that now developers and people with a vision of how housing should be get to use the Palisades as they're just blue like their, their empty canvas.
- [19:40]
Nico Ruderman
Right, right. Well, on my way up here I was listening to your most, most recent podcast. I think it just came out today and you guys were talking about that, talking about how there's a lot of land grabs and a lot of, you know, Chinese and Hong Kong money coming in and really just buying up property because insurance is not paying fast enough and, and all the, all the issues you discussed and I mean you guys are spot on.
- [20:04]
Spencer Pratt
Yeah. And I could go like, because LA Times likes to call me a conspiracy theorist. Here's a conspiracy that if you create a situation where an entire town can burn down or a city or whatever, and foreign, let's say operatives, foreign entities know that they can now come in, buy up all the lots and also build their own 10 story buildings. Now you have like a real problem with like foreign adversaries having big pieces of at least California. So again, it sounds like conspiracy, but it's happening now. So right now it's not so scary because it's like, oh, what are they going to do? Build some nice houses and sell them? It starts getting scary if they're building blocks of 10 story buildings and that type of, you know, again, to me that's scary. I don't know if that scares other people, but I was scared when it.
- [20:58]
Nico Ruderman
Was, just scares me.
- [20:59]
Spencer Pratt
Beach houses, you know.
- [21:00]
Nico Ruderman
But I mean it, it is a conspiracy, but it's not a theory. It's actually happening. It's, it's, it's really happening. And you know, this, this community has been through so much, it should be allowed to rebuild within a bubble. I mean, same for Altadena, same for, you know, paradise and every other place that's just burned to the ground due to gross negligence on the state's part.
- [21:23]
Spencer Pratt
So for the will you'd explain because I mean I asked obviously Chat, GPT and Gronk or whatever what YIMBY is. I know what it is based off of. Just this lunatic I went to high school with who's got a hundred million dollars and most of the time lives in mansions in a different state. And I just have seen his like tweets and stuff. I'm like, this is the last person I would ever go off of to how I'd want to shape my community because again, he's really just 100 millionaire heir heir living in a different state when he wants. So the idea of him shaping any community, let alone then bringing his thoughts to my community. So YIMBY is your, what is this?
- [22:05]
Nico Ruderman
So you know, NIMBY is not in my backyard. It's, it's a term that's that people, you know, came up with to, you know, a derogatory term towards people who live in neighborhoods who's like, you know, I don't want homeless housing in my neighborhood. I don't want this. I don't Want that in my neighborhood. So it's not my backyard. YIMBY is yes, in my backyard. So it's, it's really just a play on the NIMBY insults that, that's, that people have had for years now. There's really a few different kinds of NIMBY. There's the NIMBYs, I'm sorry, the YIMBYs. There's the ones who are getting a ton of money from developers and BlackRock and investors and all of that. Then there's people who truly care about housing and they feel like it's a supply and demand issue and the more housing you build, the lower rents are going to be, the more affordable it is going to be. But really a lot of what it does is it allows BlackRock and other people to come in and buy up communities and turn it into a renter society where nobody can afford. Because you know, I'm not going to be able to outbid blackrock on a house, on a single family house. They can come in with an all cash offer and close same day. I can't do that. I have to go get a mortgage and all that, as do most people. So I think it's a combination of really bought and paid for politicians along with idealists who genuinely care about housing in their community. And I think in some situations their ideas make sense and some they don't. I think a lot of it is misguided. So SB79, a lot of people that support that, YIMBYs that support it. A lot of people I talk to are like, well you know, I have friends who can't afford to live in LA anymore. Housing is insane here. I get that. It's, it's a real issue. But I don't believe that build, build, build, especially building 10 story luxury condo buildings and single family neighborhoods is going to affect housing. And in fact I think it might have the opposite effect because all of a sudden you go into a neighborhood, I mean, where's that going to happen? That's they're not going to, they're going to buy at disaster zones and they're going to buy up in poorer single single family neighborhoods. So it's going to affect those neighborhoods because all of a sudden you're building luxury condo buildings with a small percentage of affordable housing. It's like 7 to 10% of it has to be affordable. The rest of it can be market rates. And so that will then create gentrification in some of these neighborhoods and actually raise the property value and have a reverse effect of what they claim to be doing now, is that going to happen everywhere? No, but that is a potential that they're not talking about and not looking into. And so.
- [24:53]
Spencer Pratt
And that's why Karen bass, mayor of LA, opposes SB 79. Right. And the city of LA, they both. The city council. They both or they just say that?
- [25:02]
Nico Ruderman
Well, I mean, I think everything that Bass does is political. I don't, you know, I don't really know what her true motivations are, but I think what she does believe in is local control and the idea that LA is already meeting its housing mandates that were determined years back and some other bills passed by California. So their argument was, well, we're already meeting our housing mandates and you're basically taking away our control to plan a community, which is how you, you know, you have issues with infrastructure. Is there enough power, is there enough water, is there enough gas, is there enough sewage capacity? Then you have issues with egress, evacuation. Can people get in and out? Is it going to create traffic, is it going to create, create gridlock? There's a lot that goes into city planning and something like SB79, what it does is it basically takes the power out of the local government from the city council and the mayor, and it hands it right over to an LA Metro. So all of a sudden you have the people who are in charge of the buses and trains in California by de facto determining what zoning happens, because they can be like, oh, you know, we're going to run a bus line here and they'll know they already have built in ridership because anywhere they run a bus line with certain schedules, and obviously a lot goes into what buses qualify. But the short of it is they then will determine city planning. So wherever they want to run a bus, all of a sudden developers will jump in and be able to build high density in that area.
- [26:40]
Heidi Wood
I would just wonder if any of those people had been through the palisades at between 3 and 7 before this happened, because you literally couldn't even move cars ever since Apple Maps came in and Waze and all these different apps. You can't drive through the Palisades anymore, Spencer.
- [26:56]
Spencer Pratt
I'm saying even pre fire, pre this.
- [26:58]
Heidi Wood
Fire, because before, you know, I've lived here, what, almost 20 years and Spencer's lived here his whole life. And every year it increases in traffic so much and parking and schools and it's impossible to get your kid into school here. I mean, this town was already so overpopulated and with the new village there, which I personally loved, but it really created a new tourist attraction as well. So just the amount of people, it seemed like all of LA was already coming here. So it's just terrifying to think that you can't move back here just for safety reasons. And it's so infuriating that you're at a place where you, you lost your home, you lost your community, and now you don't even have the opportunity to come back if you want to and that you have no control of it. So thankfully, Spencer has been fighting the good fight and being a voice for the community and so many people have come out and asked him to do it. But it's so frustrating and so overwhelming that you have these politicians who have no right to come in and take away even more and more. It's so frustrating.
- [28:03]
Spencer Pratt
So the argument that I just recently heard, obviously it's all new to me, but the argument is, well, zoning is democracy. What does that even mean?
- [28:17]
Nico Ruderman
Well, I heard you say that this morning. I've been thinking about what that even means and that line alone, I don't know what the context is because I haven't.
- [28:27]
Spencer Pratt
Been.
- [28:27]
Nico Ruderman
Been privy to read that. But, but.
- [28:31]
Spencer Pratt
I think what it was.
- [28:32]
Nico Ruderman
I mean, I, I believe that, that it's, it's not zoning, it's democracy. I believe democracy should determine zoning be because people should. You know, obviously there's issues with, with racism and redlining and there's, there's historic issues when it comes to housing that are terrible and terrible history in our country. And a lot of people defer to that when people say, well, you need to protect the character of a community. But there's more to a character of a community than that. I mean, the Palisades is one of the tightest communities probably in California. And it has been. I mean, the history and the events, I mean, the 4th of July parade, such a big deal up here, and all of the other things that this, this town has always had going for it were just ripped apart. And to tell those people, sorry, you can't go back to your way of life anymore because we want to do some social engineering experiment through, through state legislation is insane. It's cruel.
- [29:39]
Spencer Pratt
And that has been what you know and why Heidi just got emotional because it's already so insane to have to be fighting LADWP and Karen Bass and all these people that say they have complete immunity and they have no liability or expectations of protecting your community, even though you paid all their taxes and you paid all this money. So I'm already having to fight that, which to me is the most twisted psycho Thing ever, just to get that accountability. And then to add the new layer of now I have to be fighting to make sure if we're even, ever, ever able to financially be able to rebuild, to have our town even look even close to what it was before it burned down. Like I thought the only thing we were going to be changing once, like January 8th when it like burned down, I didn't understand the whole nightmare of insurance and California fair plan. I thought, oh, we're just going to change everything. Everything's going to be like our neighbor's house, a fireproof house. But now my whole panic is I have to spend more energy than I have to be for trying to find accountability for the criminal negligence I have to be fighting to protect. Just building back what this community was for so many generations. And those people, those, the great grandparents, the people that made the Palisades what it was and it stood on that. And it was a place where people from all over could come here and be part of this community and come into town and go to the parks and go on these hikes and experience it. It wasn't like there was a gate in the front of the palaces. Yeah, maybe you couldn't live here because it was too expensive, but neither could we. We had have had a mortgage. We had to hustle everything. We put every single dollar to be in here. And the argument people have, it's like, oh, it's all millionaires. Most of these people are generational. The only thing they had to pass down was their great grandfather's condo or their great grandfather's house. And a lot of it, people don't realize there was affordable housing. There was two mobile home parks, there was tons of apartment buildings, there was condos. I mean affordable in the sense that you can live here. Obviously. I keep saying to people who argue like, oh, there's no, nothing is affordable in California. So I don't care how many 10 story buildings, the Haley Bieber smoothie is going to be $90 next month. So it doesn't matter if you can live near here. You're not going to be able to eat because you can't eat at any of these restaurants because the cost of wages for the people that work in these, the waiters and the kitchen and the staffs and what it costs to have a small business that if it's a restaurant or whatever, you're never going to have affordable because you're going to have to literally live here. Say they make it 10 story and then drive three hours to go find a place to eat. What are you going to go? You know, the farmer's market's more expensive than Gelson's now. So it's not like, oh, I'm going to go the farmer's market so that it's just this weird. Oh, afford to what? You're not going to like, if you can't afford to live here. Like, none of us can. Like, it's a way bigger change that needs to happen. So I don't know.
- [32:47]
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- [32:49]
Heidi Wood
How fast are we talking?
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Heidi Wood
Puppy under control fast.
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- [33:00]
Heidi Wood
And there's training T R E A.
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- [33:04]
Heidi Wood
And now we can all relax and order these matching hoodies to get cozy and cute.
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- [33:12]
Nico Ruderman
It's on. Prime.
- [33:17]
Spencer Pratt
Race the rudders.
- [33:18]
Nico Ruderman
Raise the sails.
- [33:19]
Spencer Pratt
Raise the sails.
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Nico Ruderman
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- [33:53]
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- [33:56]
Heidi Wood
Conos precios vajos de la vuelta clases de Amazon, Amazon gasta menos son real. Also, it's really frustrating about rebuilding this community. And the perfect example, and like Spencer was there earlier, is the park you just spent a million dollars to rebuild our children's park with fire trucks and sirens that are so loud, so traumatizing. So talk about inappropriate and missing the mark of the trauma of our children to spend the money and the time. How about a community vote? How about anything like that? I don't ever want to take my kids there because I'm not going to take them to a fire truck park in the Palisades where they and their friends had to evacuate from school. I mean, it's just. It's so tone deaf, the entire situation, and so infuriating that they don't care. It's some kind of weird, tormented, dark thing. And it's so frustrating that this is a community that was about love and togetherness and it felt like a small town. I grew up in a small town in Colorado, and I love that. And it creates a sense of safety and community and Oneness. And that's why I lived here. This is the only place I wanted to live in California. Or else maybe I'd rather live in a different state or somewhere that does provide that and that we can go to the baseball field and that I feel like my kids are being watched by other parents that I know. And you know, they used to say it takes a community to, you know, a village to raise children. And there's that saying for a reason. And we found that here and we worked really hard to live here and to be here and that Spencer grew up here and his family was here and the history of it here. And like Spencer said, it only recently became millionaires here. But everyone I know that lived here were really hardworking middle and upper middle class families. None of my friends are rich that lived here. Everybody worked for every experience that their children that they were providing here. So the whole thing is so shocking that it continues to unfold in such a disturbing, upsetting way when you feel like someone's going to come in and someone's going to help and the government's going to help and you're just slowly realizing that it feels like almost everybody's against you and trying to continue to tear that away. And people feel almost some kind of sick gratification like, oh, sorry, the Palisades is gone. It's like that's such a disgusting, disturbing thing to even say or to think. And you know, it's like everybody works really hard and that is part of the American dream and why this country was built on hard work and work ethic and being able to dream and being able to try to continue to make your life better and you want the best for the next generation. So to feel like that's almost, you know, for me, it feels like a part of that is gone too. And it's like that is what makes this country so great.
- [36:46]
Spencer Pratt
And then it gets worse because not only do they here's. She said they should have voted on it. Actually, before the Palisades burned down, the entire community had multiple designs and they picked a design for the new Palisades park. And the Palisades park didn't burn down. They just chose to take that million. And the funniest part is Karen Bass, I think, took fire aid money, not even the government's money. She took money that was supposed to go. The people raised it. It was supposed to go directly to victims. So now you have a government, a city person taking that money and then tearing down a park that didn't burn down. And Then designing it how you want. And here's the best part. Tonight I got every single person in town texting me, Spencer, you got to be on the zoom with the park. Rex meeting at 6:30. It's like we have our first double date in eight months and now I have to be on a zoom for a park tonight to tell them why it's insane that they have the. It's not a quiet siren. You hit that siren and it sound.
- [37:44]
Nico Ruderman
I've seen it.
- [37:45]
Spencer Pratt
It sounds like the real deal. It's showing up. You hit another button, it's like, like.
- [37:52]
Heidi Wood
Not a kid.
- [37:54]
Nico Ruderman
Traumatizing.
- [37:54]
Heidi Wood
Yeah, it is.
- [37:55]
Spencer Pratt
So here I am. I have to continue again. I'm not being paid so I have to do a job which is they're actually being paid to. I'm paying them and now I have to do it for free. Go at 6:30 at night and wait on a zoom and then hit a button to be a speaker and say hello Mr. Kim or whatever your name is. This is a psycho, insane, PTSD trauma triggering park, you idiot. But this shouldn't be my job. I pay these employees of the government with my tax money. That's why I have no money. Because all my money went to taxes in California and were the most taxed ever. So that's why I thought I would have a house too. Because I thought, oh my God, we must have a full reservoir next door to our house. Oh no, it was empty. But this is the type of stuff.
- [38:45]
Nico Ruderman
That probably be a fire truck that shows up when you need it.
- [38:48]
Spencer Pratt
They used to do drills on our street every year, every Sunday. And I have to move my car and it was this thing and water.
- [38:55]
Heidi Wood
Would come out like we would, you know. So that's why I was surprised too.
- [38:59]
Spencer Pratt
We thought it was coming from the hygiene.
- [39:00]
Heidi Wood
I think it was actually the neighbor's pool the whole time. But now driving up here, you saw the roads too. We have the worst road in the Palisades here. I can't even drive my car to my house. And so is that ever going to get fixed? Absolutely not. Like how it's been months and every day, every time I drive up here, it's worse and worse. I had nails in my tire. I mean the, the state of this town is continuing to be shocking. I just thought like, okay, the army corps will come in. That happens with all these trucks and then they're going to fix the roads and they're going to fix these things so you can start rebuilding the community. It just feels like the rebuild is not going to happen.
- [39:38]
Spencer Pratt
Speaking of the Army Corps, I do want to shout out the Army Corps just had a press conference to commemorate that. They cleared every single lot. And just so we're everyone's clear, the Army Corps is a federal government thing. So Karen Bass and Nome, they're always talking about the fastest debris remote. You literally did nothing. The federal government came in, they did it all. And they're like oh, said it was going to take two months was a there you're bragging on something you literally have nothing to do with. And then the other piece is that is Karen Bass was on the flyer. That's the only reason I went because I wanted to go to ask her if she supported the congressional investigation into the Palisade's fire. And she's a no show and everyone's like oh no, there was a shooting in Los Angeles. She had to go to. I already knew she wasn't going because I talked to my LAPD sources at 9am and they're like there's absolutely no scheduling. She is not going into the Palisades today. So then they just lie on, they just say she's there to put her on the thing. And it's just, that's how much they don't care because this town's gone and now they're just working on their future version of it. So we're all irrelevant. They're just stalling us out with the permits. And then like for instance, the LA Times yesterday I Read says like 600 permits are, you can go on LA County's website. I went on the permits, I circled it and put it in my story. It's 160 and my, my sources say that's even cooked. It's like 104 full build permits in eight months. There's only 104 permits for people to be able to build, if they even could. And they can't because what nobody's talking about is California fair plan which everyone got stuck on because state farm and farmers dropped everyone a month before the fire. Some people one week before the fire in, in December like eight like Christmas time where these 70 year old people that have been paying for 40 years for insurance now have zero insurance. They have no money. Somebody sent me a photo, I've been asking the person to let me post it of their like 78 year old dad in a, in a, in a lawn chair now in South Carolina in comatose because he can't even comprehend what just happened to his existence. And everyone in my, you know, comment section be like, oh, millionaires with insurance. There was literally the only people that were those people. Their houses didn't burn down. I keep saying it. The actual millionaires live in the Riviera Palisades, for somehow the fire stopped right there before, right there on Amalfi. But all these millionaires that people are talking about, their houses didn't burn down. So you're not talking about it. You're talking about the people that have lived here their whole lives. They bought these houses when there are a hundred thousand, one hundred fifty thousand. Like my parents got their house probably for three hundred grand. The house was one hundred and twenty years old. They, you know, so.
- [42:31]
Heidi Wood
Which was a lot for them.
- [42:32]
Spencer Pratt
Yeah, he just paid it off probably right before it burned down. And now he has zero insurance because he paid for 40 years with state Farm. But since State Farm had a GPS app that connected everybody to Newsom's Topanga State park, that anyone with a brain knew that they hadn't maintained the brush for over 60. I thought it was 40 years. I just talked to this guy that's lived in the Palisades. They call him the Sheriff. He was a gold medalist volleyball player in the Olympics. I'm going to get him on the podcast. He said, 40 years. I've been on this hill for 65 years. They've never cut a single bush. And so we're getting him on. So I feel like we've gone so many places.
- [43:13]
Heidi Wood
So what's your advice for these communities, for people in California, for what's going on in the world right now? How can you make a difference? What steps can people take?
- [43:28]
Nico Ruderman
Well, I think people can take steps. You know, exactly. First of all, you have to pay attention. You have to show up to your local meetings, you have to read your local newspapers because you can't trust the big newspapers to report on hyper local issues. The LA Times isn't going to report on, you know, there's missing water. Whereas, you know, Jamie Page from the west side Current, had she known about that, would have been front page on her paper. So you have to pay attention locally what's going on. You have to get involved. And you know, it's hard, it's a pain in the butt. I don't want to be on a Zoom at 6:30 at night either. That's a terrible way to spend your life. But what's the alternative? Alternative is letting the corruption take over local politics and ruin your community in one way or another. And so what you can do is exactly what you guys are doing. You have to search for the truth. Which is why, you know, I mean, you remember when I first reached out to you, I was, I was, I've been following you, but I was pissed off at that LA Times story, that hit piece that was placed on you. I was like, first of all, half the stuff in this story isn't even true. This writer has no idea what they're talking about. And how dare you criticize somebody whose only crime is trying to stand up for their community. And, you know, I don't know you, we haven't really talked about this, but my, my gut is telling me you feel like, hey, I have this platform, I have millions of followers on social media. I'm obligated to use this tool that I have to speak out and raise awareness and do what I can to learn about what's going on and protect my community. And that was how I saw you. Are you gonna get everything right? No. Am I gonna get everything right? No. I wasn't raised to be a politician, but you need to start showing up and asking the right questions and using whatever platform you have to speak as loudly as you can for your community.
- [45:36]
Heidi Wood
And where can people find you and how can people vote for you and.
- [45:41]
Spencer Pratt
All the things support your.
- [45:43]
Heidi Wood
I support you.
- [45:44]
Nico Ruderman
Yeah, well, I need a lot of support. I'm up against, you know, I have several candidates.
- [45:49]
Spencer Pratt
You don't have to say their names.
- [45:52]
Nico Ruderman
No free promo, but you know, they have access to a lot of money, both through personal wealth, you know, family wealth through connections, you know, within, you know, the usual connections, you know, they're politically connected people who I'm running against. And so it's, it's important to really pay attention to who you're voting for too. I mean, so I'm available. You can find me at. Nicoruderman.com is my website site, nico4ca, which I know you follow, Spencer, so you can look on that. Nico Ruderman. I'm on Instagram. I'm on Instagram. Yeah, but I need support. I need people to get the word out. I need to raise money. It's hard. Campaigns suck.
- [46:36]
Spencer Pratt
How much does it cost to approximately run for state senator in California? Ballpark?
- [46:42]
Nico Ruderman
Couple million. Couple million. And you know, it depends on the election. I mean, this is gonna be a very high priced election because a lot of people raised a lot of money so far. And you know, I think when Ben Allen first ran, he raised like 1.9 million, something like that. But that was 12 years ago. And so, you know, just, you know, an idea like the bonnet recall when my friend and I were doing that, we had to raise almost a million dollars. And we did that as nobody's. Like, I was not politically connected at all. Nobody would speak to us and nobody would help us. We were trying to get consultants, we were trying to get lawyers. Nobody would talk to us because we were trying to recall a Democrat, even though we were Democrats. And so money, politics, all it is is money. It's just a big money game.
- [47:28]
Heidi Wood
I like also what you're saying, and that's what Spencer keeps saying. Like, this isn't about politics and what side you're on. It's about what's right. It's about rebuilding. It's about justice. You know, so it's like, I love what you're representing with that. It's about bringing California back, the independent. You know what, what you're saying there. I just think there's so much value to that. So thank you.
- [47:53]
Nico Ruderman
Well, thank you for having me. It's been great to actually finally meet you all.
- [47:57]
Spencer Pratt
Yeah.
- [47:57]
Nico Ruderman
I've been following your story with heartbreak with you guys, so thank you. So it's good to actually be face to face.
- [48:04]
Spencer Pratt
I'm glad we had a chainsaw to end the episode. Very authentic here.
- [48:11]
Heidi Wood
Well, thank you so much to everybody who tuned into this, who's streaming. Watch all of our episodes. You can catch up. Please leave the best possible comments and five star reviews. We'll see you next week. And God bless you all.
- [48:24]
Spencer Pratt
The five star matter, because, like, if you do Apple podcasts, that boosts you up to the top charts. So even if you're like, it doesn't matter. It does matter. It's just like a little algorithm game.
- [48:37]
Heidi Wood
Do not forget to pre order Spencer's book. And it has been top charts. So excited. Top of all the charts. So please pre order.
- [48:45]
Spencer Pratt
Last I looked, I'm eight spots away from passing our almost president Kamala Harris. If there's one race I care about right now in California, it's my book versus Kamala Harris's book.
- [48:59]
Heidi Wood
So the guy you loved, past tense. The guy you loved to hate, Spencer Pry.
- [49:04]
Spencer Pratt
And it's Amazon is the chart I'm talking about. But you can buy it if you're like, don't like Amazon. We love Amazon. Hey, Amazon. You want that to say Amazon, say Heidi Wood, just DM me. But it's also on anywhere you can buy a book. So please, I need to sell 30,000 of these books to get number one on the new York Times bestseller list, and it has to come from 30,000 different people. So even if you're like really rich and want to hook it up, I'll end up with like a sword next to it. I don't want to look at it.
- [49:34]
Heidi Wood
Hey, buy as many as you want.
- [49:36]
Spencer Pratt
Hey, all fine with a dagger. You buy it if you got 30. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Thank you so much.
- [49:41]
Nico Ruderman
I ordered mine.
- [49:42]
Heidi Wood
Yes.
- [49:50]
Spencer Pratt
That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6E Tron and the quiet confidence of ultra smooth handling. The elevated interior. The interior reminds you this is more than an ev. This is electric. Performance redefined.
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Spencer Pratt
Fantastic.
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