ReRun - Rebuilding Life, Community Resilience, and Finding Strength After Losing Everything with Michael and Jaimie Geller

Summary

The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer

ReRun - Rebuilding Life, Community Resilience, and Finding Strength After Losing Everything with Michael and Jamie Geller

Release Date: February 26, 2026
Hosts: Spencer Pratt & Heidi Montag
Guests: Michael and Jamie Geller

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Brief Overview

This powerful episode centers on the devastating impact of the Palisades fire, focusing on the personal stories of Michael and Jamie Geller, who lost their home and business. Through raw, unfiltered conversation, Spencer, Heidi, and their longtime friends the Gellers discuss loss, resilience, the challenges of rebuilding, and systemic failures at local and state government levels. The episode is filled with emotional accounts, frustration over bureaucratic obstacles, and spirited debates on accountability, insurance, and the changing fabric of the Pacific Palisades community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction & Background

• Generational Connection to the Palisades:
  • The Gellers are multi-generation Palisadians and jewelers, rooted in the community for decades ([03:02]).
  • Commentary on the misconception that all Palisades residents are affluent; many homes are inherited and were once affordable ([03:02], [04:09]).

2. The Fire Experience: First-Hand Accounts

• Evacuation Chaos:

  • Jamie recounts dramatic scenes: "I'm sitting with my 15 year old in the car... Not a firefighter, not a cop, nothing. I look to my left and I just see fire roaring down the mountain." ([06:54]-[07:13])
  • Actual evacuation lacked organization, support, and even basic communication.
  • Emotions of panic, survival instincts ("I'm not burning in my fucking car." – Jamie, [08:21])
  • Mike describes being stranded above the fire, only one police car escorting groups of vehicles at a time ([10:00]-[11:13]).

• Critical Delays & Negligence:

  • Firefighting resources were largely inactive or unavailable.
  • Systemic failures: 911 calls went unanswered; their house was left to burn days after the initial event ([14:06]-[15:06]).

3. Aftermath & Accountability

• Government and Command Failures:

  • Frustration at lack of fire response, water resources, and bureaucratic deflection.
  • "The most mind boggling thing... LAFD has full immunity. They can literally let your town burn down. You can die and they're immune." – Spencer ([19:50])

• Insurance Nightmares:

  • State Farm and the California FAIR Plan are portrayed as adversarial, using legal loopholes to delay or deny full payouts, leaving many unable to rebuild ([29:24]-[29:52]).
  • Spike in insurance premiums over a few years, unaffordable for most families ([35:38]-[36:55]).

4. Community Loss & Displacement

• Changing Demographics:

  • Many residents—whether elderly, families with kids, or empty-nesters—are unlikely to return or rebuild; others have relocated and started new lives ([31:30]-[32:15]).
  • Developers are poised to buy undervalued lots, intending to build high-value properties out of reach for former residents.
  • "The Palisades will change from what we... became accustomed to." – Mike ([32:15])

• Loss of Community Fabric:

  • Nostalgic references to local hangouts, schools, and the simple "regular people" culture being replaced by luxury development and absentee owners ([33:10]-[34:06]).
  • "What regular person is buying a 6 to $8 million house and then ready for the best part? You know how much it would cost to insure [it]?" – Spencer ([33:31])

5. Systemic Barriers & Political Frustrations

• Permitting & Environmental Hurdles:
  • New costs: required $2,000 “biological reports” tallying impact to organisms, creating further barriers to rebuilding ([49:54]-[50:15]).
• Distrust of Political Leadership:
  • Blame is placed on local/state politicians and government agencies; frustration with lack of accountability, blaming of climate change, and distractions by partisan politics ([22:46]-[23:27], [26:16], [28:12]).
  • "They blame it on climate change. They blame it on each other..." – Spencer & Heidi ([28:12]-[28:16])

6. The Fight to Rebuild and Uncertain Futures

• Personal Dilemmas:
  • The Gellers and hosts debate whether to return, rebuild, sell, or move elsewhere (Montana, Hawaii, Arkansas, Reno) ([56:06]-[68:14]).
• Holding Officials Accountable:
  • Calls for congressional investigations, transparency in records, and community advocacy ([45:27]).
  • Role of media and citizens in pressuring for change.
• General Mood:
  • A sense of abandonment—"we are on our own" ([28:44])—mixed with persistent but weary resolve.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I'm not burning in my fucking car."
  Jamie, describing her mindset during evacuation chaos ([08:21])

• "No one's coming. No one's coming. And then it hit me. No one's coming."
  Jamie, crystallizing the existential isolation of fire victims ([07:17])

• "LAFD has full immunity. They can literally let your town burn down. You can die and they're immune."
  Spencer expressing the frustration with legal shields for first responder agencies ([19:50])

• "What do we pay taxes for if they, these people that are supposed to give us the, you know, protections...?"
  Spencer challenging basic civic trust ([20:50])

• "We lost everything that we knew... Not just our home, not just our belongings, not just our sentimental things, not just our schools, not just our income, our store. We lost our market. We lost our doctors, my dentist, my orthodontist, the hair, ev. Everything we know. And these people have no comment. No comment."
  Jamie, expressing the far-reaching devastation of the fire ([38:13])

• "We are in a state of limbo. We're not sure."
  Mike, summarizing the uncertainty for themselves and many others ([60:35])

• "At the beginning like all the people that were so die hard... are all kind of like, well, we're good... they're just like waiting and seeing. So while they're waiting... that lot's sitting empty... limbo."
  Heidi, describing loss of communal momentum ([60:39])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [06:54-11:13] – Jamie & Mike’s harrowing evacuation stories
• [14:06-15:51] – 911 failures and lack of on-the-ground emergency support
• [19:50] – Discussion of agency immunity and lack of accountability
• [29:24–29:52] – Insurance difficulties blocking rebuilding efforts
• [32:00–34:06] – Developers and the changing demographic fabric
• [45:06–45:27] – Spencer’s activism and push for accountability
• [49:54–50:15] – The cost and red tape of “biological reports” for rebuild permits
• [56:06–60:35] – Gellers' debate: Rebuild, sell, rent, or relocate?

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The Tone & Language

• Pull-no-punches, candid, and emotional—as fans expect from "Speidi."
• Jokes and dark humor interspersed with raw honesty and anger.
• Deep sense of betrayal by public officials, insurers, and systems meant to serve citizens.
• Undercut by fierce community loyalty, nostalgia, and a strong desire to document and fight for what was lost.

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Takeaways

• The Palisades fire was not just a disaster, but a catalyst for the unraveling of old community ties, forcing residents into existential limbo.
• Systemic failures, government inaction, and insurance hurdles meant that victims have been left largely alone to pick up the pieces.
• The Gellers’ and hosts’ determination to speak out, highlight injustice, and advocate for change provide a template for grassroots resilience and resistance, even as the long-term future remains heartbreakingly uncertain.

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For anyone who’s never listened to The Fame Game, this episode is a raw, at times heartbreaking, yet deeply informative look at the human cost of disaster, the resilience of community, and the ongoing challenge of holding power to account.

Transcript

[Heidi]

Tell me you didn't get plastic surgery

[Spencer]

to pull out the app.

[Jamie]

Oh, no, that's all God's time.

[Spencer]

Welcome back to the Fame game. You're wondering why my gorgeous pop star wife is in the dirt lot after we were in that beautiful recording studio listening to peaceful birds and now we're back to chainsaws. Well, life happens and here we are. Heidi also has no voice. She. She tore her.

[Jamie]

I have a hemorrhage in my vocal cords.

[Spencer]

A hemorrhage in her vocal cords. So just know that album three, she put some real energy into it. So that's been fun. The sign language for the last three weeks. But she is here. She wanted to be part of this big podcast. We have two legendary Palisadian locals. Currently they're. They're slumming it in rentals in Malibu. So they're right now Malibu locals.

[Jamie]

Actually, this is why we are here in our lot because these are dear friends of ours. And Spencer, how long have you known both of these amazing people?

[Heidi]

Decades.

[Spencer]

Too long to date any of our ages here. We're going to hit all demos so let's not put us in any box.

[Jamie]

And I met Jamie when I first started dating Spencer in 2006 or seven too. So that's a long Jamie.

[Spencer]

Obviously they can all speak on themselves in a second. This is still part of the intro. Jamie was a world famous stylist before branching out and creating one of the most unbelievable jewelry businesses that carries some of the best jewelry in the world and Mike GTV's custom pieces as well. So not just other names. So. And Mike Geller, you're with third gen.

[Mike Geller]

Oh, I've been in jewelry since diapers.

[Spencer]

You're third generation Palisades and jeweler.

[Mike Geller]

Yeah, I think my grandfather dabbled a bit. You know, he was a music. He was a music manager. He wrote some really cool songs and did a lot of jewelry for his artists. And my mom, you know, went to Hollywood high, very LA local and started making jewelry for her friends. And then it grew into a business and I just sort of was on her hip the whole time, just, you know, watching. I didn't think I would ever do jewelry, but I guess it was just always in my cards.

[Spencer]

Did Jamie style you today? Because that shirt you're wearing looks.

[Heidi]

I did buy the shirt for him. I was the first sale, to be honest.

[Mike Geller]

Spencer, this fit is inspired by you, buddy.

[Heidi]

But I'm confused you style.

[Mike Geller]

You know, I watched the show, I've seen some other people on the show. I figured I'd Dress.

[Spencer]

Oh, Jeremy did wear a coat.

[Mike Geller]

Jeremy. Shout out to Jeremy, love you, buddy. I wore the sport coat with the, with the, with the. Straight out of water.

[Heidi]

I have a question. How long have you been in? Like, how long is your family from Palisades? Like how back I think Skipper was

[Spencer]

in the 90s, so like 45 something years. And that was a big thing. I just had a call shout out sue from circling the news because I was checking in with her because tomorrow is the congressional field hearing where the senators are coming from D.C. to talk to witnesses, fire victims. And I just wanted to check in with her. And I was like, what are some beats that you feel like no one is really hit on? And she said the generational connection to these homes, that's where I was going. People think that it's all affluent people in the Palisades. And she's like, you really need to make clear that so many of the people that now are not going to be able to come back to the Palisades. Their grandparents and some even their parents. Grandparents. Parents have these homes and they've just been passed down from when these homes cost $40,000. And another interesting thing, she said the amount of grandparents that also had the other generation living in the houses with them was. Is such a big part of the policies that people can't even comprehend. She also said all the old school

[Heidi]

families, like none of us could afford to come here now. Like, like we can't.

[Spencer]

Like it's totally cooked.

[Mike Geller]

It's a different back into the Palisades after this is pretty. Gonna be pretty impossible. So you moved for the people that are born here?

[Spencer]

Yeah, I think I was like 5 years old when they moved from Malibu. And. And the other thing about the fluent thing is she said there's the Tahitian Terrace, there's the bull. So that was like almost a thousand affordable housing. She said there's also was a thousand actual affordable housing, like apartments. She said there was, you know, the list of all these people that aren't going to be able to come back, you know, so we were all living the dream here, you guys. What a professional. Look at this. Behold for planes.

[Mike Geller]

Maybe that's Biden coming in for another one of his talks.

[Spencer]

Well, speaking of that update, we found out, which we always knew something was fishy with Air Force One, and we're still waiting on that. But now we know for a fact that because of Biden going and visiting Hunter, that there wasn't a single LAPD motorcycle cop available to help in any way. On January 7th. And that is in the LAPD after action report. So they know the policies is burning down and they don't go park him in a secure building or drive him back and say, hey, we need all these motorcycle cops to be helping with evacuations. And that is something that you lived. We had Maeve and Zach talk about that, but I feel like your level is even crazier because you had, like, kids.

[Heidi]

And I. I remember coming down the Highlands, like I was in town at a Pilates class and I saw the smoke. Mason called me Maeve. I actually, I only remember Maeve texted me because I have a screenshot of her text. I was like, I gotta get home, this is bad. And I started driving and I saw the fireball and I called you guys at home. And two of my kids were still, still home for winter break. So I said, get the suitcases out. We have a housekeeper. I was like, get Janet to get the suitcases out. I was home five minutes. I packed what I could, forgot my own bag, and I was at the bottom of the Highlands. I know because I took one picture at 11:30. The fire started at 10:30, so I had gone home, packed, and at the bottom, and it was stopped. Stopped. There was no one. And I'm sitting with my 15 year old in the car. Our 17 year old at the time stayed with him because he didn't think he'd ever leave and he wanted to make sure our dogs got out. So I had the 15 year old, all the luggage, and I get to like, almost around Calvary Christian School and it's just stopped. Nothing. Not a firefighter, not a cop, nothing. And I look to my left and I just see fire roaring down the mountain. And I. Then I look to my right and I see fire roaring down the mountain. I look up, the palm trees are on fire. Not a person in sight to help move anybody.

[Mike Geller]

So I think that's where they were. They had held people. They were holding people.

[Heidi]

Well, so I got out of the car and started walking and I was like, on the news, people are sending me texts. We just. I just took my, like, what I thought was my purse, but I had nothing in it, and walked to the corner. I saw. I saw people with babies. I saw nannies with babies. I saw old people with their caretakers. No one. I saw my neighbors. I saw. And I'm like, no one's coming. No one's coming. And then it hit me. No one's coming. So I told my son, I'm going to run back to the car. And I got to get my important papers, which again, once I opened that box, there was nothing important in it. And I have a truck, so my truck has a cover on the back of the thing. And I just remember the car in front of me was on fire at this point. And somebody was screaming, it's gonna blow, it's gonna blow. Don't get it. And my neighbor Steve Guttenberg happened to catch me having a full panic attack. Helped me get two luggages out. My 15 year old wouldn't walk with me back to the car. I met him at the corner and I literally ran for my life to Gladstone's along with everyone else down there. Phone didn't work. Mike is up. They stopped people from coming down the Highlands because now the whole.

[Mike Geller]

They wouldn't let me leave.

[Heidi]

The whole thing was on fire.

[Mike Geller]

They told us to shut.

[Heidi]

They didn't let people down. So all the people in the Highlands got stuck at the top. And Sunset's not moving. Zach and Maver on Sunset, I think where the Highlands comes out. But nothing was moving. I even saw my housekeeper. She was ahead of me. She inched and inched. She didn't get out. But. But I, she. She like turned as I was running. And I sat down there and I remember thinking of paradise, how all the people burned in their cars. And I had a thought. I had to keep calm for my 15 year old. And I. And I had a thought, like, I'm not burning in my fucking car. Like I'm not gonna. I'm not burning. Like I have to get out. And then when I got to the water, all I could think of was Lahaina, which was our only place we ever vacationed. And I was like, well, the water's there. I guess I'm jumping in. And I waited there, I think like three hours. There was. That's where they staged a lot of the firefighters. And they were not helping anybody. They were just sitting there in fire trucks. It's the weirdest thing. People were going up to them, giving them water bottles. And I'm sitting there like, I can't breathe. I have no mask, I can't see. I have no goggles. My hair was turning to like Armageddon gray. I am watching Tramonto, I'm watching flames. And I'm just like, what is happening?

[Mike Geller]

Finally at that point, you could not see the sky.

[Heidi]

No, it was black out.

[Mike Geller]

The sky was blacked out. And that's when I decided at home with my 17 year old and the dogs, I looked, I look up and I Thought to myself, you know what? This is probably the time I should go.

[Heidi]

Were they police escorting you down?

[Mike Geller]

They didn't, they didn't police. They didn't let anybody down. They had police at the top saying, the canyons on fire. We're not letting anybody go. Stay in place, shelter in place. And we were kind of stuck.

[Jamie]

But they weren't police. Right. They were just volunteers.

[Spencer]

Like city actually had one.

[Mike Geller]

There was one.

[Heidi]

Well, that was the one we got.

[Mike Geller]

There was one police car.

[Spencer]

Yeah, no, that was a motorcycle. Cops that weren't allowed to leave.

[Mike Geller]

It was one police car that was. Happened to be in. I feel like he was in the area anyway. And so they would not let anybody come down. And then they started escorting maybe 10 cars at a time behind this one car. And they were, you know, letting us follow the, the, the, the, the one car.

[Spencer]

Why didn't they use the back?

[Heidi]

It was on fire.

[Mike Geller]

It was on fire. So they didn't open that gate. They closed that gate.

[Spencer]

I would have smashed through that gate.

[Heidi]

No, no, it was on fire.

[Spencer]

I watched some video. Somebody drove through the whole thing.

[Mike Geller]

That's very close to where the fire actually popped off. Like.

[Heidi]

Like it all connects up there.

[Mike Geller]

It's, it's. It was right above that road, that little road that goes through to be in Venita or like the top of Lockman.

[Spencer]

You would have thought they would have had that fire road with such fire breaks that it actually wasn't like the emergency.

[Mike Geller]

That road is skinnier than this lot. It's way smaller than this lot.

[Spencer]

That's the emergency to get out of there.

[Mike Geller]

And it's only one car one way. There's no two cars can pass each other. It's one car one way, one car the other way.

[Heidi]

And then all I could think of was getting to my kid that was at school in Santa Monica and how am I going to get to him and school's going to let out and he's not going to know. And.

[Mike Geller]

And so we sent my parents to go get him.

[Heidi]

And then like those. Then.

[Mike Geller]

So here's a kid who went to school in the morning, came out to his grandparents to have lost everything that he's ever known.

[Heidi]

Well, technically, now I'm gonna get upset. Technically, our house was still there at that time.

[Mike Geller]

It was still there.

[Heidi]

Our house didn't burn till Wednesday night at 6:45pm Correct. Because Chuck Hart sent us the video that when he drove by.

[Mike Geller]

Correct. Shout out to Heartbuilt.

[Spencer]

So that's what sue was saying on the thing. The Biggest investigation that no one's talking about is the January 8th fire, because. Correct. That's a different fire than the January 7th.

[Mike Geller]

Yeah, for sure it was.

[Heidi]

We had. We had.

[Mike Geller]

We watched our business burn on the news first on the seventh. That evening, we saw our business burning on channel.

[Heidi]

I knew your house Mike maybe talked to you or saw something you posted. I knew Lindsay's house on Enchanted. I knew my other friend Sarah on Los Leones. And I'm like, thinking, how to get from the Highlands to Chautauqua. How did. How is my store on fire right now?

[Mike Geller]

I tried to go back after the store burned that night. The very next morning, I attempted every. I'm born and raised in the Palisades. I know every vein. To get in, to get out, to sneak around any way that you possibly could was completely blocked off.

[Spencer]

And.

[Mike Geller]

And they were threatening arrest if you tried to break any of the.

[Heidi]

But wait, how crazy is this? One of our neighbors did sneak in. He went to the. I think the Pastor Calvary, and the Calvary pastor drove him up to where we lived, and they went in our gates. And I have a video at 3pm on Wednesday of my next door neighbor's house burning, but my house is there, and then the house behind me burning. So we all. There's like 80 homes in our community. We all started calling 911 because there's a man who lived behind me whose house burned down, that I think I told you this doesn't leave his house. He's an older man. And so we were like, he's in his house. There's a person in their house. Their house is on fire. And we were all told there's no one.

[Spencer]

We had.

[Mike Geller]

We had checked into a hotel in Santa Monica, which eventually, long story short, had got evacuated. They called our hotel room after about an hour and 40 minutes and said, we are now deciding to evacuate this hotel. The fire is, you know, approaching Santa Monica. So we were like, we're out of here. We went down south where my sister lives. So that's a whole. Another dispatch. When you call 911, you get into a different dispatch. People were calling 911 from Alet, from Santa Monica, Palisades, wherever. They were being put on hold. They were not getting through. So because I called 911 from another dispatcher, they got me through to Cal fire right away, L.A. fire. So at that point, I was able to give them my address, tell them my house is just starting to smolder. Can you please send.

[Heidi]

No, we said the guy was in his House. The guy is in his house. It is on fire.

[Mike Geller]

From myself separately to say, I understand,

[Heidi]

but the point is they're supposed to be saving lives. I understand they let the structures go. I understand that like mentality. And that's just what it is, life or death. But this was a life or death. And they still had nobody available, no resources. 3:00pm on the Wednesday, no wind.

[Spencer]

So I have been trying to get the 911 calls. When I called 911 because we couldn't reach my dad on January 7th at like 5 o' clock when there was so much action. You could have easily. And there's to get to his street, there's like five ways into it. You know, it's like, it's not like one way. And I called 911 and they said, what's the address? And they're like, oh, no one is going into that area. I'm like, no, my dad isn't picking up. He could have hit his head. He could have.

[Heidi]

He could be dead.

[Spencer]

You need to send an emergence. Like you're 91 1. I didn't just call policy's patrol, like go in there. Like, no one is going. And I was like, oh my God, this is so crazy. And then here's the best part. He finally. His phone was dead and he gets out of there. And I'm like, well, was it hard to get out? He's like, no, just driving on a Swarthmore. Totally.

[Jamie]

He did say there everything was on fire. The cars were like blowing up next to him as he's driving.

[Spencer]

As in he's 70 something years old and could drive away. He didn't need some, you know, some. Yeah, some type of special emergency vehicle.

[Heidi]

But where were they?

[Jamie]

But that's the same thing like you're saying on the 8th, which is so unbelievable. It's like, well, why didn't they at least try with some of the water, with some of the resources. On the 8th, they could have saved

[Heidi]

half the town by then. They could have had a water truck.

[Mike Geller]

And I think Spencer's posted this, the weather report. The wind was down the next day.

[Spencer]

There's tons of videos. I have videos on the 8th of July, moms walking by Methodist, Methodist preschool. Walking in front of palaces. Like, you see the bushes? There's no wind. They're just like, you think it's over. And then two hours later, Methodist is burned down. Palisades elementary is burned down. But like, I have so much video evidence of. There's not a single fire truck on the street, so. And Again, I always go back to like, because people all day long send me these stories about, you know, their, their actual situations with firefighters. And I always say they work. It's a command structure. So obviously they got the orders to literally do nothing. So you can't really be mad at the, the, the guy. Like their job is to listen to the battalion chiefs and the battalion chiefs listen to who's ever in the emergency. So there was clearly the order. Do not try to save a single house. Don't bring water in. And that's like what I'm so excited about, the congressional investigation, because I think it's the only way we're going to find out why they didn't try to put out any. Like, I get the seventh. It got overwhelmed. It happened too fast.

[Mike Geller]

I can't wait to see people squirm in their chairs to answer some of these questions. That will be enough satisfaction for me almost.

[Jamie]

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[Mike Geller]

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[Spencer]

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[Mike Geller]

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[Spencer]

No see them little teeny bit.

[Jamie]

I just don't think they care. I don't think they squirm. I don't think they care. I think they know that they have zero accountability that they're not going to have anything happen to them. They fully got away with this. This is like a conspiracy. It's like, no, you guys are all responsible. You should all be in jail. And this is unbelievable.

[Mike Geller]

They should all. They should not be trying to prosecute some Uber driver.

[Jamie]

Right?

[Mike Geller]

They should be being prosecuted.

[Spencer]

It's. It's the biggest scapegoat thing in history. From history days earlier.

[Mike Geller]

You can't tell me you can find a criminal.

[Heidi]

Day one you knew it was.

[Mike Geller]

You can find a criminal hiding in A crawl space with a thermal imaging of a helicopter all night long every

[Spencer]

day on the Fox News.

[Mike Geller]

But you can't drive over the burn scar and see thermally that there's heat.

[Spencer]

You don't even need to. These hikers were sending videos. They were just smoldering. So, you know, that's just mind boggling. And what's so infuriating is we as taxpayers have created a situation where what people don't get. My older sister did not get this. And she went to a, like, like a birthday or something. And when the text messages all came out, everyone was like, oh, this is it. Like, somebody's gonna have accountability. And now I told my older sister like, no, the LAFD has full immunity. They can literally let your town burn down. You can die and they're immune. And my older sister was like, that's not true. I'm like, it is true. Trust me. The only time they cannot have immunity is if you die. Like in their ambulance or so. Like, the only way we could ever have accountability is if the ambulance guys were all responsible for the town. But that's the most mind boggling thing that I keep going back to, like, what do we pay taxes for if they, these people that are supposed to give us the, you know, protections and the water. And then they say, oh, that water was for drinking. It was never.

[Heidi]

Who drinks from that water?

[Mike Geller]

Nobody.

[Heidi]

What are you talking about? Drinking what? Drinking water does this.

[Spencer]

Even if it was, it's 160, 15 million, that's enough to drink and then put the fire out. If that was, you know, what was

[Heidi]

so crazy to me about the, the Santa Ines water thing is everyone's like, oh, it's been under repair for a year. I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? We have lived there, looking at it. It has been empty for years. Decades. So then I went on Google Maps and you could see it. There's a picture of it. Since 2011, it's been empty. Maybe not all the way empty, but definitely not full since 2011. It was not anything they were working. It was. They abandoned that a long time ago. They put the fill station in when there was the fire November 13th at the reservoir. They were bringing helicopters from somewhere else.

[Spencer]

No, they were using tenders.

[Mike Geller]

They were using the fill station, but

[Spencer]

they were filling it with the tenders. They were driving trucks of water next to the empty reservoir so they'd know a year ago how important water up there.

[Heidi]

So I don't even know if. If the government is like a Business. Everyone would be fired. I don't understand. This is the biggest business that we fund with our taxpayer dollars. That's where their money comes from. And they literally did nothing. I. I'm gonna break out my list.

[Spencer]

Yeah.

[Mike Geller]

DWP gets paid from their fees that they charge for our services. They don't. They're not. They're not.

[Spencer]

Which is already this weird China tax thing. Cuz the government makes us use LA dwp.

[Mike Geller]

Yes.

[Spencer]

So it's not like. So it's a private company that's forced onto us as if it was like

[Heidi]

they're like the, like, like a city there. It's like the waste management.

[Spencer]

Okay. If they're not the government, then I want a different water supply. But. Oh, it has to come through them.

[Jamie]

I think as shocking as that is, the amount of people who still stand behind them and can't say they were wrong or did a bad job.

[Heidi]

You know what?

[Jamie]

It's shocking.

[Heidi]

It's like I don't want to political. No.

[Jamie]

But it's shocking.

[Heidi]

Such hate. It's shocking our president that they do not want to speak against any Democrats

[Jamie]

and they're separate things and it's not the same. It's like you need to hold them accountable for this circumstance, for this situation. Who cares about anything else? We're not talking about America. And which political side are you on? We're talking about the negligence and the responsibility that we have as California taxpaying citizens in our town entitled to for

[Mike Geller]

what we give for those services.

[Jamie]

Exactly.

[Mike Geller]

It's so simple.

[Heidi]

Right?

[Spencer]

Any person.

[Jamie]

We're making it bigger than it is

[Mike Geller]

piggy bank for so long.

[Spencer]

Well, here's the crazy.

[Mike Geller]

We had one police car that drives through our community.

[Heidi]

We share it with Brentwood.

[Mike Geller]

30 years that we've shared with Brentwood. I mean it's, it's, it's just while

[Spencer]

everyone's getting home invasions and. Right.

[Mike Geller]

We're getting home invasions jacked.

[Heidi]

I mean squatters.

[Mike Geller]

Squatters.

[Spencer]

Breaking news. Breaking news. Breaking news. We have just been informed this is factual. In the Pacific Palisades. There is for sure one confirmed right now.

[Heidi]

Squatters on a lot. Not even in a house, just on an empty. Just like this. Somebody just set theirselves up and will not leave. And I can't say who it is and we need to protect the privacy.

[Spencer]

But it's for sure 100%.

[Jamie]

And what did the cops say?

[Mike Geller]

She has to do anything because you

[Heidi]

have to do a formal eviction.

[Mike Geller]

Like these people. They can come up with paperwork that says that they're allowed to be there whether it's fake paperwork or not. So if, if something is provided, they have to go through the proper channels to get them removed, which is totally insanity.

[Jamie]

It's really.

[Mike Geller]

I'm just saying I would love for you to come and squat on my property.

[Jamie]

They're just trying to make it so hard to live in California, which is so shocking because maybe they're trying to make the whole country this. I don't know the agenda, but it's really hard to live here and to stay here. And it's like, I want to fight the fight and I want to be here. And I love California and I always had the California dream of living here, but it's like, it's ridiculous. It's literally crazy town.

[Spencer]

If your dad loves California and loved Colorado so much, he would argue that Colorado is now becoming California. So. So you can't think. That's what I learned going to DC and just talking to people. You know, you can't assume, like, oh, I'm going to leave if what's happening here can easily go to other places. So what you got to do is stop it. And that's why I'm so excited that I'm actually now working on a new project besides the fire documentary. I'm now involved on a documentary to expose the homeless industrial complex because it connects with the fire industrial complex, affordable

[Heidi]

housing and all the money.

[Mike Geller]

140 million from ULA Palisades for.

[Spencer]

Yeah, that's just you, but for sure, this is the number that just made me, like, no matter who you are, if you have a brain, that Newsom has taken 25 billion and then made increased homeless. 25 billion.

[Heidi]

Well, the whole Palisade is homeless now.

[Spencer]

No, but like, think about 25 billion. Like this guy was telling me, like, that's. Some of the biggest companies in the world are valued at 25 billion. And you can't. So it's just a crazy.

[Mike Geller]

So relate to the people that have that hatred to Donald Trump, you know, like, they will just. No matter what, no matter what, they will speak against Donald Trump because they hate him. I, I can relate because I feel that way about Gavin Newsom. This guy has. I think it's such liberties and advantages. I mean, it's, It's.

[Heidi]

Please tell me you didn't get crazy.

[Jamie]

Oh, no, that's all God's time.

[Spencer]

The differ is like, I'll post something that's like so factual about our houses burning down, and somebody will be like, shut up, idiot. And I'll like, click in to block them. And it's just like all anti Trump stuff. It's like, so I don't, if I don't go past the stuff that actually affects me. So this person won't even hear something now because Newsom's talking smack about Trump. But they didn't like Newsom 4 months ago before he started running for president. It's just now that he's the, the Trump publicist, the anti. So they're like, oh, I'm with them.

[Mike Geller]

These like, these trolls just jump on the next like flow that it's really, that they can, you know, it's really sad.

[Heidi]

It's not about the issue anymore. It's just about the hatred for the other person.

[Jamie]

It's misinformation. It's like a switch and bait. They're totally not taking accountability and responsibility for how much they've messed up and how horrific and awful and disgusting and disturbing they are and what they're doing. And they're like, oh, just look at Trump. It is nothing to do with Trump, Republican, Democrat. It has to do with how irresponsible and awful they are at their jobs.

[Mike Geller]

That's it.

[Jamie]

That's it. That's it.

[Mike Geller]

An entity. If you don't do your job entity, you get fired.

[Jamie]

Right?

[Mike Geller]

Like reprimanded or, or, or something.

[Jamie]

And blackballed in this case from the industry.

[Mike Geller]

Just get to roll over and do whatever they want and there's no consequence whatsoever.

[Spencer]

They blame it on climate change.

[Heidi]

They blame it on each other.

[Spencer]

Exactly. All that's the other fire department.

[Mike Geller]

Just one big giant deflection after the next.

[Spencer]

Yeah. The problem is rich people fund these people. And so and these unions, like with this Prop 50. Yes. Scam, whatever. Like, bottom line is that was all just money. They put like people are like, how did this pass? I'm like, cuz they had commercials during the World Series baseball that's like stop Trump.

[Heidi]

Besides begin a curse. I think truly like the, my biggest takeaway from this whole experience is that we're on our own. No one cares about us. Oh, people hate us. But, but I never understood like in Malibu, like everyone's like, we don't leave. Or like Keegan did the brigade and like all that. I'm like, we are on our own. Not only are we on our own, we are fighting for each and every step. We are fighting to clean our lots. We are fighting to not have nine story buildings.

[Mike Geller]

Fighting to rebuild right next door.

[Heidi]

We are fighting with our insurance almost

[Mike Geller]

eight months to get.

[Heidi]

We're 10 months we have all of our plans, we have all of our permits and we don't have the money

[Mike Geller]

that our insurance fighting to get the plans to even rebuild and solidify a contractor when there's. They're so busy, they're like if you're not ready to build, we're going to move on to the next person. Our insurance company, State Farm has not been like a good neighbor and has still withheld the money that we require to rebuild. If we don't, if we don't get the policy limit which is what we paid for, we can't afford it.

[Jamie]

Do you have a lawyer?

[Spencer]

And by law I found out they don't actually even have to give you the policy.

[Heidi]

Well, don't tell me that you should

[Spencer]

give them that lawyer right now. I think they have. That's what I mean they legally pay for something. I'm a lawyer, I'm.

[Mike Geller]

I would insurance like to not do that. I would hope that they would be like their commercial and be like a good neighbor. They're not just do what they're supposed to do. But I will have to take legal action which again will cost us money.

[Heidi]

So we fight the insurance. We fight.

[Mike Geller]

At which point if we they take too big of a percentage of the money, we won't be able to rebuild.

[Spencer]

We had to pay a lawyer to get our California fair payment on a limit that can't even put in enough to put the beams in the ground that we now have to be up the code that weren't here before. So that lawyer then, because it's his job and he did a great job and got the money they were trying to fight and even give us, he then took his percentage. Right? So not like again that's exactly where we are. It's like you're breaking off the money that you need to even get them.

[Heidi]

And for what? What's gonna be here? Like we were just talking about this. Like who's come. Like at first it was like, okay, all the people that are like 75 and older, they're not going to wait for it. They're not going to wait for it to come back. That makes sense. They need to go. They only have however many years left. Then I was like, wait a minute. All my older kids friends like that have now the kids are gone to college and they're like empty nesters. They don't want their four bedroom, five bedroom house anymore. They're going to go get an apartment in Century City, go travel like they're done. Okay, fine. Then I'm like Wait a minute. Everybody with kids in school now, we moved all these kids to these new schools from Manhattan beach to Malibu.

[Mike Geller]

A lot of them don't want to.

[Heidi]

Wherever you go, they make a new life now.

[Mike Geller]

Made new friends and a new life.

[Jamie]

Well, that's what I keep saying to Spencer and I'm like, if you could live. And I asked him on the way here, I'm like, if you could live anywhere, where would you live in? He's like, I want to live here. And then I'm thinking like, yeah, but what about our kids now? What about our kids who are starting a new life and a new school and we're going to uproot them again in a few years to come back here to, to what?

[Heidi]

You know, and then what, what is going to be. The people who like are taking advantage, not taking advantage. It's their opportunity to get into the Palisades for a million dollar Tunis that,

[Mike Geller]

that can get in, you know, that they've always wanted to get in and this might be their opportunity. But bottom line is, is the, the Palisades will change from what we.

[Heidi]

Because we can't have become accustomed for like we were already scraping by to just be here.

[Spencer]

So I just had a meeting with a big developer because they kind of wanted to like gauge like if I was going to be against development of like building houses in the palaces. So I took the meeting to hear what they were saying because I was like, you know, I'd be down if you put, you know, figure out a way to add underinsured and senior citizens in. And I was like, well, I don't, I don't see how that's happening. He's like, the palace is over. Like, what you guys know, the palace is gone. You need to start thinking about the new policies and get something built. So like, from a developer standpoint, they're just like, he's right. Yeah. He's like, you're in. It's like you're in la la land. If you think, yeah. He's like, that's not happening.

[Mike Geller]

Has changed forever. No matter what.

[Spencer]

We. Right.

[Jamie]

There was a culture in the Palisades. There was a community, there was a spirit, there was an essence, there was a oneness. You know, there was a camaraderie. There are people who.

[Heidi]

It was regular people. We were. There were of course, the richer people that, you know, had come and bought their 10, 12, 20 million dollar home and they went to Gelson's like the rest of us. But I think our community was like,

[Mike Geller]

not to say that regular people won't be coming here. It just won't be the community that grew here.

[Spencer]

I mean, I'll tell you, I'll tell you they're not coming because the developer, the one that I was talking to, all the houses that they're planning on building are into the 6 to 8 million dollar range, correct? So they're buying these dirt lots that are undervalued and they're going to put six to eight. So what regular person is buying a six to $8 million house and then ready for the best part? You know how much it would cost to insure a 6 to 8 million house? Now in the palaces, what regular person could do that?

[Heidi]

So that's the only insurance you have is like regular person or California Fair Plan even.

[Spencer]

California Fair Plan is about to go fully bankrupt. So who knows if that's going to be around in a year.

[Heidi]

Well, that's not a. That's an unfair.

[Mike Geller]

There are rumors that they are trying to work with the insurance companies to have them come back here, but it'll just be money.

[Heidi]

The worst about the insurance, the worst is that the insurance companies that dropped everybody. We were being dropped by State Farm on January 20th.

[Mike Geller]

We literally buy the hair in our chini cheese. I was signing have insurance at all.

[Heidi]

We were signing our California fair plan on January 7 and I said, I'm not going to. I don't want to put my credit card number on the email. She goes, wait and see if your house burns down. Literally, that was my conversation. So State Farm had to keep us, but we were dropped. We were all dropped because somebody went to drone. No, to the, the guy, the insurance commissioner and said, we know that insurance companies went to the insurance company and

[Spencer]

yeah, but they didn't even come into the town. They used a drone and they just flew over and they're like, oh, GPS coordinates all these houses.

[Heidi]

Right? But they knew. Oh, they knew a fire was coming. They knew Newsom didn't take care of the state parks. They knew this catastrophic event was going to happen and they wanted to raise rates. I will be really honest. When we first bought the house that we were living in that burned down, it was in 2020. Our are. We had a brand new house. By the way, my, my final inspection was scheduled for January 9th.

[Mike Geller]

Lived in it for 18 months.

[Spencer]

The while it was like still.

[Heidi]

You were like so the.

[Mike Geller]

I was still. Yeah, just finished.

[Heidi]

Nightmare.

[Spencer]

Just got your grill.

[Heidi]

Literally. Our, our contractor bailed us. We moved in. It was a nightmare. But whatever. My first year of insuring that property was $14,000 for the year. The second year, which would have been 2022 or 2023, it went up to 21,000. The next year, it went up to 28,000 and something. I'm like, I don't think I can afford. Then we have to live here.

[Mike Geller]

Then we moved insurance.

[Heidi]

So then they changed me to State Farm. State Farm. I. I don't know how much. It was way less than the 14,000. It wasn't like State Farm wanted to raise it. A crazy amount, by the way. Like, the insurance commissioner didn't let the insurance companies, who knew this was going to happen, raise our insurance. In hindsight, $20,000 a year for insurance compared to the millions that I just lost. That we just lost. We had all of our money in that house, and it literally burned to the ground. And I have insurance for it for the full amount to rebuild it, and they don't give it to us. My money just burned. And it could have so easily been, okay, we're going to pay more for insurance. Okay, the insurance companies aren't going to go bankrupt. But our insurance commission said no. Said no. You can't raise the rent.

[Mike Geller]

You can't raise so rich.

[Jamie]

Well, I bet the state would just bail them out anyways.

[Heidi]

They're going to get bailed out. And guess who pays for that? Our tax money. Guess what? When we sue them, our tax money is pay everything. It's just.

[Spencer]

It's like a bad Ponzi scheme.

[Mike Geller]

It's a bad Ponzi scheme. That's exactly right.

[Spencer]

Like, just right there. Here's how crazy it is. So we ask the congressional investigation. We asked the city council to turn over some documents. They have 500 attorneys that we already pay with our tax money. And instead they go to a private law firm and spend $900,000 to then deal with the congressional investigation to send those documents that they should just have. It's like, those are public records.

[Heidi]

What about the deleting?

[Spencer]

Oh, Karen Bass is deleting her messages.

[Heidi]

Karen Bass. The fire people don't. Didn't they delete their. Like, everybody just wasn't us. Wasn't us. No comment. That. And that's what kills me, too. Those. The LA Times article. It's like, oh, when we called. No comment. Oh, we just let everybody lose everything. I lost. We lost everything that we knew. We were just. I just saw Heidi for the first time, and I. So I cry when I see the people for the first time after the fire. Like, I can't help it, but, like, we lost not just our home, not just our belongings, not just our sentimental things, not just our schools, not just our income, our store. We lost our market. We lost our doctors, my dentist, my orthodontist, the hair, ev. Everything we know. And these people have no comment. No comment. Oh, we just let it smolder. Oops. No comment.

[Jamie]

It's crazy.

[Mike Geller]

Some of this stuff just drives me so insane. Well, because what they're concentrating on, I feel like they've moved on to.

[Heidi]

But nobody cares about El Tedina either. So it's like they don't care about the Palisades because we're rich, supposedly, which we obviously, you know, we're not. But, like, I'll never forget when, like, Hurricane Katrina came and I had a friend who said, they've left New Orleans. It's because this or that. So then we all thought, oh, that could never happen here because we're Palisades, right? They don't care. They don't care if you're rich. They don't care if you're poor. They don't care if you're black. They don't care if you're white. They don't care anything. They just care about their pockets is

[Jamie]

what it feels like, and their agenda. And also, here's the craziest part that happened. The number one priority should be making sure we have water in this town and in the towns again, forever.

[Mike Geller]

Again.

[Jamie]

There's no water. Nobody's still putting water or prioritizing, filling them up. Look at our streets. We can't even drive up our streets. What is going on with the streets? You can't. But there's. Well, they should pay to come and put cement. It's insane. There's all this stupid construction going on and fill up. How does it.

[Mike Geller]

Million dollars.

[Spencer]

They're sitting in their budget per homeless person instead of. Yeah, it was like a million dollars a person.

[Mike Geller]

They think that the Army Corps did us a favor. The Army Corps. I mean, I don't even want to get into the Army Corps.

[Spencer]

And.

[Mike Geller]

And. And the things that scam another scam.

[Jamie]

But they need to fix our streets. They need to fix our water.

[Mike Geller]

It was overpaid, you know, overcharged for lots to be cleared. Took money from insurance companies when they said it was gonna be free. I mean, they did so much damage in the Alphabet streets to the street, to the curbs and the streets.

[Heidi]

What are you talking about? Have you seen Baylor and Sunset destroyed

[Mike Geller]

the big machinery that they used to clear the lots. No one's coming to fix that. There's no one coming to fix.

[Jamie]

And they're saying one thing and they're doing the other, and that's what's so infuriating. You're lying. Just saying whatever you want to appease everybody, to look good, to sound good, and you're doing nothing. How is there no account for what's going on?

[Heidi]

It's been almost a year, right?

[Jamie]

It looks the same.

[Mike Geller]

The Army Corps, they're so great.

[Spencer]

And look what they held. How did they help us? Look what they did. I mean, in their defense, if they didn't show up. No, there would be all debris. So. Like this.

[Jamie]

Yeah, they did a good job.

[Spencer]

If we're going off a newsome and bass, we'd be sitting in. But. But debris. So, you know, technically, I can't.

[Mike Geller]

It all depends on what sub you got, right?

[Spencer]

Yeah, we got a guy.

[Jamie]

We got a really good guy.

[Mike Geller]

Postmates, you know, the. The email would go out and the next sub in line would take the address and show up to the address and do the job we did. Some people got lucky and they will praise their.

[Spencer]

This guy text me last night checking in. He's like, our.

[Mike Geller]

Our.

[Spencer]

The guy who, like, did this. Oh, he's like, so. And he, like. He's like the crystal I took from the dirt I look at every night. He's. He was taking photos of the hummingbird. So it's like our experience.

[Mike Geller]

And some people had their footings buried under.

[Spencer]

Yeah. Like, you know, it's like, so then. Then they had to pay for it.

[Mike Geller]

I actually rode around with. With Colonel Swenson, who was in charge in the beginning there, you know, and I asked him flat out, because in our. In our community, we own the streets and we own the curbs because it's a gated community, and so things that get damaged come out of our homeowners association budget. And he was like, I. I can, you know, drive around and kind of show face and, you know, introduce myself, but I don't know what subs are on what lots at what times. It was totally at random.

[Jamie]

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[Heidi]

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[Mike Geller]

Close your eyes.

[Spencer]

Exhale Feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.

[Heidi]

Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh. They're so fast.

[Spencer]

And breathe.

[Heidi]

Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry.

[Jamie]

Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Spencer]

1-800-contacts New Year, New me.

[Mike Geller]

Cute.

[Spencer]

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[Mike Geller]

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[Spencer]

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[Heidi]

But what you're. But what he's saying. Without them there, it would have been even worse.

[Mike Geller]

But, but, but why would we. Why did we have to, like, let it to chance? Like, you might get a good one, you might get a bad one.

[Spencer]

I think that.

[Heidi]

Why are we even here?

[Jamie]

Oh, no, that's all.

[Heidi]

God's.

[Spencer]

The other. Yeah. That's why I keep wanting to come back to here. Because. And I always said to Heidi, he's like, why do you want to do a lot? I'm like, because if we don't keep doing this, people think Heidi's song was blew up, and they're fine, you're rich. I'll do. She's a pop star. Because everyone was playing it on Tik Tok. You know, it's like, oh, no. If we were rich pop stars, you would see some pilings going in here right now. And so I just want to forever and because I don't see any. I'll be here. So they never can just make this go away because that's what they've done. By the no comments. If they can always do no. That's the thing. I'm talking to NBC Nightly News, and I'm like, why aren't you calling this battalion chief and asking him if all these firefighters are saying. They said, don't do that. Why don't you ask him? Why did. He's like, oh, we did. They said, there's no comments, pending investigations. Like, they only made this investigation because of the LA Times thing. There was no investigation.

[Heidi]

And that was only because of you. Yeah, but honestly, you didn't do what you're doing. Honestly, I don't think a lot. This would have just been buried. Nobody would have done. Honest. Honest to God, I don't think. I think you are the sole reason that LA Times article came out that they are doing.

[Spencer]

Oh, because I literally fight with, like, community people that'll like, call me, message me, and then be like, I think you're being a little too hard on Karen Bass. And I go, excuse me. Like, have you ever heard, like, you don't get lemons from lemonade? Like, dumb old. I'm like. I'm like, lose my number, you stupid idiot. She doesn't care about you. You're are wearing dirt lots. You think all of a sudden now, if I'm gonna be nicer, we're just gonna come rebuild our house.

[Mike Geller]

Thing happens to me. Don't say anything bad about the Army Corps. Don't say anything about this entity. Don't say anything bad about that entity.

[Heidi]

I think we're all entitled to our.

[Spencer]

Oh, my God. But it's like, people. That's. People are scared. Oh, if you tell the truth, they're gonna not do some. What are they not gonna do? They're not gonna burn your house down again

[Heidi]

from Ghana. Her face.

[Spencer]

I will never thank God for that British journalist who's like, don't you have anything to say? And she's just, like, frozen.

[Heidi]

It sucks. I mean, people are scared to speak. People are scared about their career. People are scared for their future. But, like, they took mine. They took ev. I feel. I feel like my whole life just got taken, you know, like, give a comment, take accountability, even just say sorry. Like, anything. Yeah.

[Spencer]

Like, no, instead.

[Heidi]

And then go to jail.

[Spencer]

They don't say sorry. They say, we're all healing everyone.

[Mike Geller]

If they say sorry, that implies some liability.

[Spencer]

They.

[Mike Geller]

They apologize for something that society.

[Spencer]

But they have immunity. So they could, like, LAFD should be. Since they have immunity, they should just be like, the main. Every one of these top people should be, like, writing out what they did wrong.

[Heidi]

I feel so bad. I feel so bad.

[Mike Geller]

You know how many DMs, some individual firefighters that were giving apologies. They were. Some of them were the people on the foot.

[Spencer]

I'm talking the higher command.

[Mike Geller]

They're not. Command is not. No, because they don't.

[Spencer]

I had one on the phone and he was just like. He was like, it Was. It was out. And I go. I just bit my tongue in my head. I'm like, are you the dumbest idiot on planet Earth? Obviously, like, hello. I'm. It wasn't out, buddy. But he was arguing me on the phone.

[Heidi]

I was like, oh, I have people DMing me. Like, those firefighters should have stopped working out at Jetty and been up there and taken it on their own. But, like, the fire department is like a military kind of. Like, if they start doing whatever they want, there's no order to things, so that blows up their whole entire structure. You can't do that. Do I wish two of them maybe would have like, been like, oh, let me go up there with a hose. But they're. But they can't use. They can't use state paid for or city paid for.

[Spencer]

They can't take the engine up there.

[Heidi]

They can't just, like, they.

[Mike Geller]

They can't buy any gas.

[Jamie]

I think if I were a firefighter and I saw that happening, I would take my own mask, and I would go with a hose to every house and just try myself. I really do. If I had that equipment, I would just try.

[Spencer]

So there's an argument that because I

[Mike Geller]

went to lunch with my equipment, I'm buying my pumps. I'm never evacuating again. I don't care if the cops show up and try to pull me away. I will never evacuate.

[Spencer]

I mean, you should.

[Jamie]

Spencer was already saying that before with the Malibu fire. He's like, we got to get our own hose. We got to get our own truck. We got to get our own equipment.

[Heidi]

Keegan, come and, like, do a whole.

[Mike Geller]

Yeah, I'm gonna install.

[Heidi]

I didn't do it because it was so much money. I was like, oh, my God, we're out of money.

[Mike Geller]

You can. You can. You can have these barrels on the side of your house. It lasts for a year, or it'll last for a year if there's no water. Water is its enemy. So if you spray it six, you know, in the hotter summer months, it will last through as long as. You know, we don't get a lot of rain here in California, but they. I saw some insane videos of them spraying it on carpet, and half the carpet burning and the other half does not ignite. So there's a lot of things now popping up. It looks like milk, no matter what.

[Spencer]

Even with all that, Unless our state starts doing fire breaks, which they used to. So if they don't start doing that, if we don't have a real governor come in, get rid of These car people and go after the Coastal Commission, all these environmental people and just literally, you know, be like, no, that is over. It's. We care more about people burning alive than milk velch or a lizard, a green lizard or whatever, which they all die and they all burn.

[Mike Geller]

So I just had to do a biological report as part of the permit

[Heidi]

to see like what, Like, I don't know, mushrooms aren't coming back, flies and

[Mike Geller]

worms and literally things that might be affected by our bill.

[Heidi]

Another two thousand dollars just for.

[Mike Geller]

It was a two thousand dollar biological report for organisms around the property.

[Jamie]

This is insanity.

[Heidi]

Our architects had never heard of it. I've never heard of it.

[Mike Geller]

This I've never heard. The first time we've ever heard of anything like it. $2,000.

[Heidi]

What I don't really get.

[Mike Geller]

We, we by the way, had a hard time finding someone that even does that report.

[Heidi]

What I don't get is like, what, what is the goal here? Like burn us off. Like, what is the goal is to have? Is it for the builders to make money? Is it like, why I think it's

[Mike Geller]

all the ab above housing. California has a housing shortage.

[Heidi]

No, it doesn't. I talked to your dude on the phone, that one guy that you made me.

[Spencer]

Oh, they say, they say that.

[Mike Geller]

They say there's a shortage.

[Heidi]

There's not.

[Mike Geller]

And developers want to develop. Developers pay fees and taxes and kickbacks to be approved.

[Spencer]

Keyword.

[Heidi]

So it's just money. Follow the money.

[Mike Geller]

They need to be approved for these projects and cities have to approve these projects. And so that's what this is about.

[Spencer]

Well, like, look at. In Santa Monica, I went to high school with this kid, Jesse Zwick, and he was part of the community city council there. And he pushed through this housing stuff, whatever. Ends up, they find out he was getting paid by one of these lobbyist groups, like over a hundred K without, you know, whatever.

[Heidi]

That's what it is.

[Spencer]

So then push this into the city council and now everyone and it's already through. And then they find out and everyone's all mad. But it's like that Scott Wiener that just pushed SB 79. And let's watch how many of these developers bankroll his running for Congress in the Pelosi seat. So it's just like everyone's just getting money and pushing. It's all just like mafia, cartel. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Also the international community, they're coming in and buying up our state, our country, everything. It's like the Chinese are coming in and buying it up. Like these are enemy territories. Quote unquote that we are that are coming in and buying up our assets. It's scary. It is scary.

[Heidi]

Like where are we going though?

[Jamie]

Right?

[Heidi]

Like.

[Mike Geller]

And our city officials are down for all this.

[Jamie]

Oh right.

[Mike Geller]

Because they, they know that that money is going to trickle to them in the way of developments and city approvals and permits and taxes.

[Heidi]

And they're like, but here's the thing. You guys look at paradise and look at Lahaina. That's the only two that I can compare this to. They're not rebuilt right at all. So who made the money there? Honestly? Ask yourself, like paradise more Lahaina will

[Spencer]

be, you know, you got, it's like 20 years from then.

[Mike Geller]

It's like really restrictive on what they're allowing, which is how it should be.

[Spencer]

No, I've heard different. That it's like you can't even see what's going on in there. And it's like they took out everyone's land. You know, I got so many people messaging me about that. I like you deal with that. But I think it's more of a long term thing. You know, I don't know about paradise because that isn't like prime thing. But I anything on water in Hawaii, it's way. It's a bigger picture. Same with palaces. These guys are, they're talking the developer I met with, you know, in a positive thing. They're talking eight years from now. So like right now it looks like nothing, but it's like eight years from now in it. You know it's going to be cook cracking off like.

[Heidi]

So who's coming here for eight million dollar houses?

[Spencer]

The people.

[Heidi]

No, the people.

[Jamie]

Chinese. The, the Russians.

[Spencer]

Yeah, just to plant is to plant your money. It's going to be like. And I said well how do they make their money? He's like as long as the lot they buy whatever they go buy these lots right now in Alphabet on the books and they say as long as in three years that lot went up 20%. That is the business model works for them. So on a scale big and right

[Mike Geller]

now they, they have to park money. Yeah, they have enough. They have so much money that they need to park money so that the, their governments don't take it from them. And that's all written off. The write offs on their books.

[Heidi]

Nobody talks about Malibu. You know what I realized a couple days ago? Woolsey burned like 1400 structures. Seven years ago only 400 homes in Malibu burned in Woolsey. I think only like half of them are rebuilt right now. 700 homes in Malibu burned In the Palisades fire, something like that. I could have my numbers a little bit off. The Palisades fire impacted Malibu. Double what Woolsey did. And they have, I think, like four permits.

[Spencer]

Less even. Right. Wasn't it. I thought it was like three.

[Mike Geller]

No, there's. That's. Yeah.

[Spencer]

And one of them's like a connected person, too. I read like a conspiracy to like, one of the permits, like, tight. With that one person. Yeah, like, I don't know that one's. So one of them's like.

[Mike Geller]

But that stuff happens all the. I mean, even Building and safety here in la, the. The connected contractors get their permits through faster.

[Heidi]

I mean, I. I don't think our. Honestly, I don't think our permit took. Took that long compared to our permit before.

[Mike Geller]

Two weeks is what they were saying. Two weeks?

[Heidi]

Yeah, it was months, but it wasn't like, awful. Now the problem is getting. Getting the money.

[Jamie]

So where do you guys go from here? Like, where is your store now? Where can people come.

[Mike Geller]

Our store now support you. Some friends of mine, high school friend of mine, who, Whose parents lost their home in the Lockman area, also happened to own commercial building in Santa Monica. They saw what had happened to us and reached out, had their managers reach out and said, we have a space that we think you could use.

[Heidi]

So we made like a private office as a temporary situation with the hopes.

[Mike Geller]

We took a space with them. My friend's sister and parents both lost their homes in the Lockman area, so we, we took this space from them.

[Heidi]

But the hope was that we come back to the Palace.

[Mike Geller]

Yeah, we ultimately want to get back to the Palisades. We just don't know what that looks like or when that will be, but that is our goal.

[Heidi]

Like.

[Mike Geller]

Like, you guys have put your kids in another school. We put our kids in another school system. So we don't. We're not sure if we want to uproot them right away and come back. We might open our business and still live where we're living now. We're not sure if we're going to live back in. In our house even after we rebuild it. You know, we may sell it if

[Heidi]

we can rebuild it.

[Mike Geller]

If we can rebuild it, or we might sell it or we might rent it. You know, we're just.

[Heidi]

It's.

[Mike Geller]

We need to put that investment that we made back.

[Spencer]

We need that back.

[Mike Geller]

And this is the only way to do that, is to rebuild it. To get. If you don't rebuild the insurance companies, you can imagine it's even more difficult to get all the money out of them. We paid for extra endorsements for things like building codes that would change over time or expenses that would go up over time. In order to get all those endorsements in this policy, we have to rebuild. We have to go through the motions to rebuild. Whether we move back or not, we're not sure.

[Heidi]

So many people like us are in limbo right now because it's like the beginning happened and we were all in shock and we were all like. I think there was two ways. It was like we got to get back or we're out forever and that we got to get back, people. Well, now we're a year in and there isn't much momentum.

[Mike Geller]

We weren't able to just jump back. We've now taken some time and reality is starting to set in after, you know, almost nine months. What, what do we do? What do we do? Well, where do we go?

[Spencer]

He was saying seven years.

[Mike Geller]

So good.

[Spencer]

The seven years. The goal was like 80% back. So like I keep telling Heidi, like right now, if I had the money, I would want to put brand new house here, get my hummingbirds back. Caruso is reopening the village, which I loved. Going to Angelini and Hanks and there's a movie theater. So my world, like my selfish.

[Heidi]

I just need Gelson. Spencer, we need Gelson, then we can come. That's.

[Spencer]

I don't see that happening too soon without.

[Mike Geller]

No, but you're right, you know, like, I'm trying.

[Spencer]

I could be very happy with my hummingbirds. My house is apocalyptic or my.

[Mike Geller]

You know, your kids are younger. Not saying one situation is better than the other, but your kids are younger. They adapt much, I think a little bit easier. You know, I keep saying young kids are really selfish. Not that that, not. Not that I'm meaning that they're bad or they're selfish, but they're kind of in their own little worlds, right? You give them a couple video games and some toys and they can, they can adapt really easy. Our kids are older. You know, I feel like, no, I

[Heidi]

think it's more about the relationship. Relationships. I think it's about to make all these new friends.

[Mike Geller]

But I think if you ultimately said, heidi, I want to go back, let's go back, let's bring our kids back, I think they would adapt easier.

[Spencer]

Oh, they asked to go back all the time last night. The three year old's asking, honey, when can we go back to my home?

[Mike Geller]

Yes.

[Jamie]

Doesn't want to go back. Like, he wasn't happy in school here and it was not good for him. And he was having meltdowns three nights ago.

[Spencer]

When are we going home?

[Mike Geller]

Our son says, I never want to go back. Back to the Palisades.

[Spencer]

It's like it changes. But I would be fine. Like kids not included.

[Mike Geller]

I would be fine too.

[Spencer]

I would be very happy to be back here.

[Mike Geller]

I would be too.

[Spencer]

And I.

[Heidi]

They're getting an apartment together.

[Spencer]

No, no. I mean, but what is that like?

[Heidi]

Bye.

[Mike Geller]

Like I guess for us being such a community based business that burned down, you know, what does that look like for us? How do we. Where's our community? Where is our. Where's our support group that we had that was helping support our business?

[Spencer]

Thankfully the more wealthier people's houses didn't burn down. So I think you would have Riviera Palisades customers.

[Mike Geller]

Well, that's not like we were just, you know why?

[Spencer]

Because they had private fire.

[Heidi]

Those private firefighters made a line on Amalfi. They did they. And they, they, they had water.

[Spencer]

They got retardant all over. I was like, why didn't I get on Google at 10:30 in the morning when I saw flames and just be

[Heidi]

like, well, now we know.

[Spencer]

I know.

[Mike Geller]

But our, our business was not all the wealthy people. It was the community. It was people from the churches. Rebrand the rebrand. Okay.

[Spencer]

We're talking about that community.

[Heidi]

Yes. I could have a store here with a million dollar home buyers. It's not my. It's like I was just saying to you, it's like that's not my.

[Mike Geller]

It changes us. It changes not. Your life would be changed. And how does that look and how would we go about doing that rebrand? You know, Spencer, you're good at the rebrand.

[Spencer]

Oh, I'm just not there. 30 more pounds.

[Mike Geller]

But.

[Heidi]

But no more burritos.

[Mike Geller]

We are in a state of limbo. We're not sure. We are not sure.

[Heidi]

And it's sad because at the beginning like all the people that were so die hard like you two to come home are all kind of like, well, we're good. Firstly, there's a lot that are like, I'm just going to let my lot sit and see what happens. So the people that could bring back a lot of my friends, they, they had enough money to just like Huntington people to just go buy another house in the meantime. A little like whatever. Better than paying rent anyways. They're just like waiting and seeing. So while they're waiting and seeing that lot sitting empty or there's people that are like, well like us, they have to rebuild. And then they have to. To wait and see after too because maybe they've invested in this life in Manhattan beach or Malibu or whatever. And I think a lot of people are in this limbo of they don't know.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's. It's hard, it's a hard time back

[Mike Geller]

in the Palisades and you know, like Spencer said, pearl Dragon back and moku sushi and let's get it on never moku sushi. Sorry but it's, it's, it's. It's more complicated than we think think.

[Heidi]

But we just were at the Garden Cafe waiting like I was hungry. It worked out the timing and we ran into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 people we knew. And I just left and I started bawling because as much as like that's what this. I can try to go make a new life. There is nobody that will share like the bond that we have too after going through this. Like even if you get the money, even if you build back now, what is this?

[Spencer]

They got a movie theater at the Village. I would be. Well, I also. I don't like people anymore. So part of me is like have you ever. Well, I really don't. Let's just be cool. So like oh, nobody's coming back. Well, I'm gonna.

[Jamie]

It's your kids you gotta think about.

[Spencer]

I keep forgetting.

[Heidi]

I just want our cafe Palette palace. Guys. Cafe Palace.

[Spencer]

Oh that's when we knew things sideways. Once the Chinese spot left and Pharmaca. That was the sign that was the writing was.

[Heidi]

I think Mortz was the real.

[Spencer]

The real.

[Jamie]

But then that was a long time ago.

[Spencer]

Video 2010. It was a real sign carries.

[Heidi]

Do you remember they would make those like fresh croissants every morning. Did you know you guys next to Morgan.

[Mike Geller]

I ate at Greg's grill.

[Spencer]

Hot dog there way back Jacopo's. That's why people I'm gonna be like oh. I'm like no, the house is.

[Heidi]

And the people that lived in Alphabet streets were like two bedroom two bathroom houses. Not like 7,000 square foot house on a 5,000 square foot long.

[Spencer]

Now that's all it's gonna be.

[Heidi]

That's all it's gonna be.

[Jamie]

And here's the drastic park and then there's gonna be nine building skyscrapers with affordable housing. It's crazy.

[Heidi]

They have to exempt. They have to exempt fire prone areas from SB79 just like they did of they did.

[Spencer]

So where we're living right now in Santa Barbara. And I felt so good when I read the article because I at least fought SB79 so hard. So I read it and I was like, yep, this is what I tried to fight. Developer right now is trying to put a 200 foot building for affordable housing in an area with the biggest building right now is like. And it's not even a building. It's just like a clock is 50ft and it's getting pushed through. And the city council people are saying

[Heidi]

and Santa Barbara had those horrible fires and mudslides.

[Spencer]

That's there. Well, this is, this is what the argument. The city council's saying. They're saying that they. The fire department there doesn't have the water pressure to even hit 200ft and they don't even have the budget to put hook and ladder fire trucks. But that's these things that sb79 wiener and these people don't account when they force these things through where the doesn't give the city council any say. It's like there's a lot of factors also. Like, like I was arguing when they were talking about putting SB79. I'm like, well, what's the problem? And I'm like, okay, density. Well, if this is the real thing, this New York Times Connor got argued and he's like, well, people should evacuate on foot. That's the whole point.

[Heidi]

Like New York and evacuate.

[Spencer]

Like in the movies. Everyone runs on foot. I was like, okay, let's. I'll stop you there. I'm not even arguing. It's like, well, right now we knew there wasn't enough water to do the houses already. We're going to add more density when the water system can already even, you know.

[Jamie]

And if all of a sudden we don't care about building permits and not having a say, then great, wipe all of our permits and let us all fricking build. And if you don't care and it's no problem and everyone should just be able to build and we should excuse of.

[Mike Geller]

Of. Of housing.

[Jamie]

They're creating an elitism shortage for themselves is.

[Mike Geller]

Is ridiculous. Thank you guys for having us on. And thank you Spencer, for what you're doing.

[Heidi]

We are so proud of you.

[Spencer]

Yeah, we're starting too. I'm like getting mad at everything.

[Mike Geller]

I'm on the team. If you need me for anything, you know I'm here.

[Spencer]

I know. So tomorrow morning you got to wake up at seven for the congressional hearing to do the tour of the palaces.

[Heidi]

Wait, why do I want to go?

[Mike Geller]

I'll go. Where is it? You tell me where to be.

[Spencer]

Where I'm there. My parents house. Because there's not a single house even. Oh no. All the way from Swarthmore via all the way to the bluff.

[Mike Geller]

You know that house. I was born and raised here. One house. Of all the homes that I've lived in. I'm almost 50 years old. God damn.

[Heidi]

I've lived in eight homes here. Two.

[Mike Geller]

All of them are gone. My grandma, my main childish home that was on Vidal Solas that I started Pali elementary in first grade and basically went all the way to almost Pali before we moved to the next home. Gone. Every house Jamie and I two are

[Heidi]

standing up except for a condo.

[Mike Geller]

Every house that we ever bought together as a married couple, gone. The saddest is the house that we just sold to a new married couple who had no kids. They wrote us this beautiful letter. Their parents helped them give them the money to buy the house. 18 months before the fire, they just bought the house. Burned. All they had was a dog.

[Heidi]

And they sold the lot.

[Mike Geller]

And they already sold the lot. They're not coming back. They're not coming back.

[Heidi]

They bought the house for $2.7 million

[Mike Geller]

and they sold a lot for 850 grand.

[Spencer]

People are just getting.

[Mike Geller]

It's a fire sale.

[Spencer]

Wiped out.

[Mike Geller]

Yeah.

[Heidi]

I don't know. I hope they had California fair plan at least and like Maybe they got $2 million.

[Jamie]

They probably have to be honest, pay their parents back.

[Mike Geller]

Insurance gives us any more of a hard time, we may have to straight audible.

[Heidi]

Yeah.

[Mike Geller]

Take the money, sell the lot with the plans and permits and break. And at that point it would be almost probably impossible for Jamie and I after losing our business to buy back in the pal.

[Jamie]

You got to get the lawyer.

[Spencer]

The backup if we have to is Bentonville. We're going to move to.

[Heidi]

Where's that?

[Spencer]

Arkansas.

[Mike Geller]

I'm literally trying to get my son a ride home from school.

[Heidi]

I'm going to do half the year in Montana, half the year on Oahu Poo. Because Montana, you only play car registration once in a lifetime. They have good taxes there to pay the taxes in Montana and then winter in Hawaii.

[Mike Geller]

No, I will take the money from the insurance company and I will.

[Heidi]

That's what a lot of people are doing.

[Spencer]

We may move to Reno and Alsa next to Tahoe. I guess that's like a great place. People are moving like right on the border of Tahoe.

[Mike Geller]

Is there a lot of trees and bush can burn. Burn.

[Spencer]

As long as these people in charge right now, everything can burn. That's the thing we should end on. I had a call with the guy that's been doing before they ran out of budget, which is they stopped doing. He was a fire commissioner in Palisades that would come and put the notice if you need to, like, trim around yard. He stopped doing Palisades because of budgets in 2022, because they don't have the funds for these guys to come around from the fire department. And so he said, I don't know why people keep talking about the Palisades. He goes, hollywood is going to burn down. Like all. He's like, yeah, Hollywood's burning. He's like, bel Air, it's burning. He's like, these people have not learned anything from the palaces fire. And it's coming around the corner. Maybe next year, all of Hollywood Hills, everything just cooked. And people over in the Hollywood Hills like, oh, the Palisades, it all got burned. It's like, you guys are gonna get burned next. Like Bel Air. Like, you guys all putting money behind Newsom and these politicians. You're all gonna lose your Monets and Picassos.

[Jamie]

Thank you guys for coming on. Thank you guys for being such advocates for the community. And I always think about the two of you as leaders of this community and the heart of this community and really the essence of what made this place so special. And your kids and we absolutely love you. Make sure you guys check out your Jamie Geller jewelry online.

[Mike Geller]

Also WW Jam Geller jewelry dot com.

[Jamie]

That's right.

[Spencer]

They're Black Friday coming up. And so if you want something special, if you have a ring, you want it sized and you don't want it rushed, you better. You don't. You better do it fast because it's coming right.

[Mike Geller]

Thank you guys. Really. Thank you guys. We're so proud of you guys.

[Heidi]

Heidi, you have. You.

[Mike Geller]

You have killed it. We really. Spencer, you're an amazing advocate. Keep blowing the wind behind her sails.

[Spencer]

I know. I gotta get back to the music here.

[Mike Geller]

Okay, because. Because it's really awesome. We are. We are fans. We are straight fans.

[Jamie]

We love you guys. Thank you. And make sure that you stream all my music online, please. And pre order Spencer's book, the guy you loved, past tense to hate. You can pre order it on Amazon, on anywhere else that you'd like to pre order things. Thank you for your continual love support. Please give us great comments and reviews. Get the merch.

[Spencer]

And if you're watching this on X, thank you so much because X is the only reason we got our first ad. So. Hey, the podcast is only about a million dollars of debt. Jk, we don't have it, we would have bought pilings. But thank you. If you're here on X, you're very important. Who would have thought X is now like the spot. Extra special shout out for abs.

[Heidi]

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[Heidi]

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[Heidi]

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