Mamdani's NYC - Policies vs Realities and Cost of Living (Sara Alessandrini)

0:00 welcome back to another world of blaze everybody i got miss sarah elison drini here um she is back on the show and she will be well i wanted her here because i want to do a follow-up on how we thought about mom donnie because she was trying to move closer to new york and i know you're closer now. And we're going to dive into that. But first, I got to go ahead and do the whole coffee thing here. So let me go ahead and read that sponsor up really fast. All right. For all of you know what it is, got to pay the bills. Please look at a Fueta coffee as your next coffee choice. It is actually just very, very good coffee. It is ethically sourced and it is sourced from farmers that implement sustainable farming practices. But besides that, The other reason is because 5% of your sales actually goes towards the conservation and upkeep of the great outdoors that we all enjoy.

0:59 You can save 15% by scanning the QR code above me. And if you're not watching and only listening, I will have the link in the show notes. Or you could also go to my website, worldablazepodcast.com. You can see the address up in the ticker up there. And just click on the sponsor link. And then from there, you will get the Afuera Coffee link. It'll take you there. It'll apply to the 15% savings. and you're helping out a great company and you are also helping me out. So without further ado, let's bring Sarah back on. And Sarah, tell us about your move, Sarah. You just moved from California to New Jersey not too long ago, right? Yeah, it's just a different world. It's from Los Angeles to New York. So I'm very close to New York.

1:43 Every time I walk on the street, I can see New York far in the distance. It's very beautiful. so yeah it's just very different because like coming from california where like i walk a lot i took public transportation for 11 years in los angeles so it's a rarity over there obviously so but it's nice because there if you walk it's mainly you and crazy people very often so you always have to be careful like and the distances are like so big spaces are so big in los angeles so it's not that people are right next to you so it's for It's still fairly safe to walk, but you have to always pay attention who is the person that is walking on the street.

2:23 While here, there might be some crazy people, but it's so much nicer. It's crazy to say it feels much safer, even like in Newark, in New York, where everybody complains about how dangerous it is. For me, having lived in Los Angeles, so nice. Yeah, I think I'll believe you. I live in California, so I think I'll believe you. um hey so for for those who are not familiar um you were on previously i think what was it been six to seven months ago already something like that it's very possible i mean could it be like even last year yeah oh no longer i know i think it was like november or december yeah it was it's almost been a year november is when there was the election in new york city did we meet that month I would think.

3:11 But yeah, so it sounds like you're happier being close to New York. I wanted everybody to get a little more background on you because it's been nearly a year since you've been on the show. So tell everybody what you do. Well, first of all, I'm from Italy. So I'm a full-on immigrant still on temporary visas. So I'm very expert about that topic too, if we want to talk about that. But I've been here in the United States for 11 years. So 11 years I was in Los Angeles. And at the beginning of summer, I moved here to Newark. And I made, first, it was a feature documentary that I made about New York politics. So it was about Cuomo when he resigned with accusation of sexual harassment.

3:53 So this was back in 2021. And I made a feature documentary. And then I expanded that into a miniseries that is now streaming platforms. And I released it last year. So that's why I've been following New York politics, even if I was working and living in Los Angeles for the past five, six years, I guess. So I've been following New York. And last year I was traveling here a lot. Also following through the Cuomo campaign, I was kind of like following what the Cuomo campaign was doing. So I got to see some of that process, how the election process works. So it was definitely very interesting. not amazing it's almost like the campaign it's kind of weird it's like yeah i wouldn't say like i don't know it's kind of kind of creepy i would say campaigns how they are run i don't know there is something that it's i don't know i like like real and authentic stuff so and i expected more so i said to everybody because people were saying oh it must be so amazing and inspiring to be in New York with the election, but you don't really feel that when you're there in person, because it's not just that everywhere you walk, you can see politics.

5:08 It just feels like any day of the year, if there are posters about election, they are in very small places. The majority of people, especially in New York City, also, there are a lot of tourists, a lot of people that don't even vote in New York. So there is in that atmosphere. So I got to see how in the areas where people go and vote, but it's not that you see anything, obviously, because they're in closed spaces. You get to talk to a few people, but it's not something. It's funny because I got to leave New York politics much more from Los Angeles, because everything happens nowadays in the media, either social media, the news media. But the people in person, they don't talk as much about politics unless you really find those few people that want to.

5:55 But again, when you're in New York, the majority of people are not experts in politics. Yeah, well, I would think that's also true of any city election, for example, unless it's a super small town where everyone's really connected, like a small community. Once you get to a certain size city, most people are disconnected from the actual political system and what's actually happening, who's actually governing the city they live in. Yeah, I mean, I think Los Angeles is much worse. like people still know but los angeles like it's just weird like even for me that i've been following politics even when i was living in los angeles and there was the re-election for gavin newson last time i didn't even realize that was happening because even in the media people were not even talking that much because i guess they just assumed that he would be re-elected so they didn't there wasn't a push more than likely yeah so but the politics like the the governor in new york's state like for the past two years people have been talking about this re-election that is going to happen like this year so it in new york the media talks much more about politics and people know like there are definitely many more events there are so many places you can go and that are like political related i'm sure compared to los angeles but still people it's not everybody is involved let's say yeah i think i think california is just going through the motions for the most part and this just i just think that they assume that however

7:25 it is it's just always going to be that way so there's not really a lot of talk except for like in small circles as in maybe the opposing parties that are trying to get the other party out but outside of that i think people just go on with their day-to-day they just assume well this is what it is and you know this is we're just going to walk through and not really pay attention and i think that's a lot of it in california so i mean to me anyway sometimes yeah for sure and a lot of that with the homeless situation it just feels like it's been like that forever and nothing can change but even if you go to new york like it's not like the safest city on earth new york is like new jersey so we're still talking about a city that could be very dangerous there are not as many homeless even like during summer as los angeles so you go to places where there are not homeless even in new york city manhattan it's not that every second you turn and there is a homeless like there is in los angeles but you get when you live in los angeles it feels like it's impossible to imagine a city where not everybody is homeless i guess yeah i wonder if that i wonder if it has to do maybe with new york having actual more more shelters and programs because they were ahead of California for years on that. I mean, that's something they've invested in long ago.

8:39 California is just barely realizing you need to do these things. And then they had them and then pulled funding. So a lot of them went away. So here we are stuck with people with nowhere to go on the streets. Yeah, like in New York, it's the law that they have to be in shelters, obviously, but especially because obviously we're talking about during winter, it's pretty crazy here. Right. I mean, it gets pretty cold to sleep during the night in Los Angeles. It's not great. But over there, they don't have that many shelters. And so there is a rule that say that people legally cannot sleep on the street, but they kind of, what do you say when you put that law on pause? Because I think it was some judge who said until you actually build more shelter, you cannot enforce that law.

9:25 So that's the issue that's been going on in Los Angeles too. Of course. All right. So let's get on with the meat and potatoes, as they say. The last time you were on, there was speculation about New York because you love New York. You love New York as an immigrant. You were always, as you said, would follow New York politics from afar. Came to America, even from California, you were monitoring New York. Now you're closer, right? You're in New Jersey now or Newark. You're closer. And so I told you that we were going to do a follow-up on this Mamdani experiment because when you were on last was right when he was running to get elected and he did get elected. So I want to get your view, your perspective on this. I got a few things that I'll show you.

10:10 We'll talk about and get your perspective for someone who's closer to New York. And you can maybe just like, I don't know, just let us know how you feel about it and see if I want to see if your assessment and your opinions have changed. Let's put it that way. No, nothing changed. All right. Well, we'll find out. So let's start here because what's interesting is the tension and the backlash that he has been getting about trying to attend the 9-11 memorial. Okay, that's coming up. And the victims and the families of 9-11 do not want him there for whatever reason, but he is not going to listen apparently.

10:57 he'll attend 9-11 ceremony. He's going to do it regardless of how the people feel. On Friday, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani will attend the annual 9-11 remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero despite mounting criticism from some victims, families, and prominent Republicans urging him to stay away. Petition signed by nearly 100,000 people urges Mamdani to skip the event, citing his appointment of Ramzi Qassem as chief legal counsel due to Qassem's past defense of a convicted al-Qaeda member. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York Governor George Pataki have publicly pressured Mamdani to avoid the memorial while security preparations of Friday's ceremony begin this week with checkpoints installed at the World Trade Center.

11:40 And we can keep going, but you get the idea. So here's what's interesting. The people don't want him there. They don't want him there because they don't feel he truly represents New Yorkers and what they went through on that day. And it's funny because September 11th, it's going to be 25th anniversary. And it seems so far removed, at least a generation removed already. So we have a generation of people that don't really have any real connection in terms of what it felt like and what the country went through. And so we're at that cusp of disconnection. And then we have a mayor who, and we'll show you some more clips and whatnot. where he really doesn't seem like he takes it serious unless he's forced to take it serious until he gets a little criticism or pushback.

12:28 Do you have any opinion on this? You being close to New York, you probably have a little more insight. I'm just reading stuff from a foreign secret. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's been going on from the beginning of his time, obviously, because it's not just this 9-11, a lot of issues related to the Jewish community. that's been the criticism of him from the beginning so that's why I don even know what would be the right answer because yes there are a lot of people that did the petition for sure and they don want it So obviously you would want to be respectful to people that suffer so much And he did like a statement was it?

13:09 In the past month, I guess. I think he was already, I don't know, maybe he wasn't a politician yet. Like he was running, but maybe he didn't like start his time. But then he was talking about his aunt. Oh yeah, yeah. I didn't pull that up. But yeah, good call. I forgot about that. Yeah, because he was saying that he was thinking about how his aunt suffered after 9-11 because the people look at her because she was wearing the hijab, I guess. And so that obviously was very disrespectful because he kind of felt like he was saying that the real victims of 9-11 were like the Muslim community, that they got a few people to look at them in a weird way.

13:49 So obviously, definitely there is no reason, like there are reasons obviously why people feel certain things and are scared of certain things. But obviously, whatever happens like this, the terrorists, you shouldn't harass a certain community just because of the religion they believe. I think that goes for anyone. Like there are like crazy situations in the world with every religion, every situation. So if someone is just a random person walking on the street, you should not harass that person because they're Muslim or because they're Jewish and all of that. And it's been going on, obviously, in New York. There is a lot of division because of that. And Mamdani is even more polarizing in that sense because there are a lot of attacks against the Jewish community that's been going on.

14:36 And a lot of times he's not responding unless the journalists ask him specifically about that. So there has been a lot of that going on. So, yeah. Has it ramped up the attacks on the Jewish community since he's been elected? Yeah, I think the numbers they're showing that there has been a big part of hate crimes are against the Jewish community. So there has been that. But again, also like numbers, it's really hard to say exactly what they mean. So even this petition, I don't know exactly this petition. that went under a thousand because every time there is a petition, anyone can sign the petition.

15:19 It doesn't mean that they are citizen or like, well, not citizen, but at least that they are New Yorkers. So I don't know who exactly did this petition because I think a month ago there was also another petition that was related to the Jewish community. I don't remember right now, but there was a lot of rabbis that criticized something that Mamdani did and asked him not to do something. and even there it sounded like the way the the media was talking about that petition as if it was everybody in new york because it was related to new york but it was actually people all around the united states so yes definitely like the family i don't want him to attend there are a lot of like people that are saying that uh but all this thing also become very political so also as a mayor you have a duty to be there for something this important and to support the community and if you don't show up I think it's not there is no win for him in any situation because if he shows up he's disrespectful to the family if he doesn't show up it's oh look at this politician who didn't show up for this important memorial so it's a very difficult situation to be on honestly it seems like he's probably being set up either way he can't win like you said but I mean I get your point about the petition But still, I mean, the sentiment of New Yorkers in general, at least from what we see on social media, like, you know, okay, we can believe social media for as far as we can probably throw it.

16:51 I could throw it pretty far, though. But the problem with that is we don't know what we can really believe, right? Yeah. But at the same time, it seems like the sentiment is they don't want him there. And this didn't just start yesterday. Like, this has been going on for a while. Yeah. I mean, it's been going on with him all the time. But even for smaller things, people say that. That's where I'm saying at a certain point, okay, this is a very important topic. So I'm not saying that this is just another of many. But when we start putting politics in every little thing, then it's harder to know when the important ones happen, if it includes politics or if it's really... Because if it's like the families, obviously you want to honor the families.

17:32 Those are really the people, like everybody that lost someone they loved. You really want to be respectful to those people. So if someone else who maybe might not be involved in this specific situation, but hates Mamdani, and now that person doesn't want him to show up, it's a little different. because these people... I'm just saying that there are some people that would say that no matter what he does, they would say that. And I don't want to defend Mamdani. I'm not in the business of defending Mamdani. But I also see how he has a responsibility there to show up for his role.

18:12 And so there is no win there for him, I think. Right. Well, I get your point. But it seems like what you said earlier is most things he does is because he feels... feels like he has to like he's being forced he's reluctant to do these things yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure all the time all the time you know we'll go back to what he posted in 2023 and a lot of people were upset about this and you can read into this like it's very small so i cannot really read it yeah i'll read it for you okay it says nearly 3 000 new yorkers died on 9 11 22 years later, the death hasn't stopped. We mourn our neighbors who died that day, the hundreds of thousands who died in the wars that followed, the unknown millions injured and displaced.

18:56 In their memory, we work toward a better world. Now, a lot of people were upset with that because in what he posted, he specifically or intentionally dismissed how they died and the reason why we remember 9-11. It was very dismissive in the way he did it. And that's the way a lot of people took it okay yeah i mean like that's like a lot of these people that support the dsa the socialist again yeah those are more concerned about the old wars that happened after 9-11 because of 9-11 and like the hasan piker he said that america deserved 9-11 yes and that's just not like a slip of a tongue those people that support the dsa people like the socialist and the very for whoever is on the far left.

19:45 Those people really believe that. So it's not something to take lightly, obviously, but that's a lot of people believe that. So there is a lot in the media talking about that as if it's like a fringe, but it's actually like a lot of people believe that. And it's the same people that on October 8th were celebrating Hamas. So it's the same people. And a lot of these people are getting in government because it's not just Mamdani, but there are a lot of other DSA members that feel the same. And so, yeah, and there was another situation. It was the beginning of the year, I think, where there was a protest.

20:28 It was a far-right protest in front of Gracie Mansion, so where he lives. And it was a far-right. And yes, they were like bigot people, obviously, against the Muslim in general and everything. But then there was a counter-protest and two people threw a bomb against those people that were protesting. And when Mamdani wrote his statement, he said that it was unacceptable of the far-right people to do the protest. But it sounded like the bombs were thrown by the far-right people. When it wasn't the case, it was two people. There was actually the counter-protest.

21:10 And in his statement, he didn't mention that. So right away, if you don't know what happened, you think it was the far-right people that were doing the violence when it wasn't the case. So again, that was another situation where the people that were screaming halak bar, because that's the problem. every time there is someone screaming at Laqbar, then he justified that person and the same people that voted for him justify that type of behavior. And so there are double standards here, obviously. So it's not like by chance that people are feeling this way for 9-11. There are a lot of reasons that have been going on. So, yeah. Yeah. So I get the fending, I guess, your people when you were talking about the protest against the Muslims.

21:57 but you know that that's that's a can of worms we can definitely go down the road of that if you'd like um but here's here's the thing we can call the people far right we're also looking at a situation in new york where you have a strict pro-muslim islam mayor now i don't really care what i care is when that comes before your duty to your city or the country you live in currently and that seems to be his position when your wife skips the 250th anniversary of america now i guess she doesn't have an obligation to go on a muslim retreat in spain and then goes on another one in Portugal, I think that sends a clear message to what you really think of the people of the United States of America. And then it also begs the question, what are you doing here? When you're intentionally dismissing people and doing posts like I just read earlier, where you're just saying, well, people died. That's the same as Ilhan Omar saying, well, some people did some things.

22:46 Same type of thing. I mean, I'm not saying it's right, of course. I'm not saying it's right to be bigoted but i can see where the frustrations have have you know come up over the years um and and it's you can see how i think people feel like they're being either replaced or they're just being brushed aside to welcome in a giant muslim community that seems to be immigrating like i wouldn't say uncontrollably because it's not uncontrollable anymore but it just seems like there's more and more of them and you're getting pushed for more mosques to be built you're getting push for more private institutions and schools. They want their own private communities where they could have their own police forces and everything, which we just saw they're trying to push for in Texas.

23:29 They're trying to do that in Minnesota. They've been trying to do that in Kansas for a while. Kansas actually is an area that has had this going on for many, many years. A lot of people don't even realize that. And then when you have the leaders of care up there, the Council of American Islamic Relations, when they're up there giving a speech and they're endorsed by abdul al-sayed and his speech is not abdul al-sayed but the leader of care when his speech is literally telling you that our goal is to increase the mosques to 4 000 and from those donations of those 4 000 mosques we're going to go ahead and send people to the university to get degrees in political science we're going to get degrees in journalism and filmmaking specifically to write their own history and their own narrative and they literally did say that i'm not i'm not putting i'm not inflicting anything into this. This is what they actually said. And I have that clip, not with me, but I can send it to you if you haven't seen it. And so when these things keep coming up, you feel like they're telling you what they want to do. Now, the danger here, Sarah, and where I believe you're correct in the bigotry, there's a danger of being bigoted because we could throw a blanket around all Muslims. We know that there are different types of Muslims.

24:35 We got Sunni, we got Shia, and I understand there's a difference between those who are extreme and want to be jihadists. But the average person doesn't discern that, unfortunately. So I think this Mamdani situation is, it's almost like fuel on the fire where I think people want to see him do good. But then there's these little things that keep adding up. And to me, the devil's in the details. I think it's intentional. And I think it's just building up and people are just getting to a point where they just don't want to deal with it. And hopefully it doesn't turn violent. I don't think it will. but I think people are starting to see through him, especially when you have stuff like this. Okay, let me play this. I mean, I don't know if people are starting to see through him, honestly.

25:15 And I've been saying this for a long time. And I wrote a long sub-stack also about what he says and everything that he doesn't say. So he is a salesman. He does. So he just sells stuff. He doesn't know. He doesn't have a plan. And people say, I want him to succeed. I'm like, why do you want him to succeed? If he's succeeding in what he says he wants to do, that's going to hurt New York. So I want New York to succeed. I don't want Mandani to succeed because what he wants to achieve is going to hurt New York. Well, let's watch more of his salesmanship here as he was just citing executive orders in regard to what he was going to do with 9 And look where he hands the pin right Yeah yeah yeah To this man here So tell me that not a message he's sending to everybody because this guy is that lawyer.

26:10 I forgot his name. What was it? It was, yeah, Ramsey Kassem. Isn't it the husband of Chevalier? Is that the answer? That I don't recall, but what he is famous for is literally being a lawyer. who represented a terrorist of al-Qaeda right here. Yeah, but that's been going on during the election, the campaign too, because there was also an article that Mamdani took a picture with this person who was, I don't remember how much he was involved, but he was involved with the first attack to the Twin Towers, the one in the 90s. Yeah. So he was taking a picture with that person too.

26:54 So yeah, this controversy has been going on. There is obviously a lot of reasons why people don't want him there. He's not... Yeah, he's an actor. He's an actor. So that's... Say the least. Yeah, that's the thing. But I don't believe that people... Like, I'm very cynical in this because I don't know how people are really able to see this. And, you know, like New Yorkers are famous because they could spot bullshit. But I think a lot of people in New York are not New Yorkers. There are a lot of transplants. A lot of transplants. Like the people that voted for him the most were the people that had been in New York for under five years, less than five years.

27:39 But the problem is that those people show up and vote. And especially, but there are a lot of reasons why people would support someone like Mamdani. Because if someone is in their 20s, especially because of like the resentment that this population like this generation has against boomers and older population they're not going to care about what he believes in just because he's young I think for a lot of people is enough for them to vote for him and he is controversial for this kind of stuff also like yeah you have to pay a lot of attention in what goes on the news.

28:21 And a lot of people don't really read the news, don't read the other side. A lot of people just look at TikTok. On TikTok, there is only a specific type of population that is posting. It's not the boomers, obviously. Maybe they... I don't have TikTok, so maybe even the news media has their own channels. There's definitely that going on, but it's definitely... I think people see the news, but they're just glancing headlines and they're just moving on. To them, that's their update. Or they want to get their little 15-minute podcast that tells the entire world's news within 15 minutes every morning. And it's like, how deep are you really going?

29:01 You're not getting any depth there. People don't want to challenge what they believe. So they see Mamdani. Even when he goes on television, when he has the clips, he speaks with a soft tone. He's so respectful. He's so nice. And they ask him questions. He doesn't answer any question, but it sounds like he does answer it. But again, it requires a lot of critical thinking that I think also in school. The problem is that in school, people are not being pushed to really think hard. And they're forced to believe that there are certain truths and everything else is not true. So I think that's a big element for sure.

29:42 Like education in America is not too good right now. Yeah, I recently wrote an article about that to education in America on Subsak. I'm sure you should. Yeah, no, I did. So yeah, it was a very long one. So yeah. Let me do this real fast because I want to take our focus of Mamdani. On the one hand, there's the Muslim or Islam frustration, right? And then you and I didn't get to the DSA side, but that was a lot of what's going on behind this movement too. And then he does this stuff, though, that has nothing to do with religion. Okay. Taking Islam out of it. Where he goes and sues the city council over a $10,000 bonus to teachers' aides.

30:23 And this one's interesting. Okay. So New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani has filed a lawsuit seeking to block a new law that would provide roughly 25,000 school paraprofessionals with $10,000 payments, arguing that the compensation decision should be handled through collective bargaining. The city council unanimously approved the measure, which took effect Wednesday after Mamdani declined to sign it with the first $2,500 installment scheduled for January 2027. And Mamdani's administration says the legislation could undermine New York's labor negotiation system and create a precedent for other public sector unions to seek compensation directly from the city council rather than through bargaining.

31:05 now that's fine except for the united federation of teachers and city council supporters defend the payments as necessary to address law um low paraprofessional salaries and staffing shortages while the estimated cost of city is about 325 million so in one breath he's trying to say this should be handled by the unions and then the unions are saying no we're good with this like so where are we at why is mam donnie suing them what's the play here in your opinion yeah i mean that that's a problem with mam donnie because like on one hand he wants to he's fine with doing short-term moves for everything like the freeze the rent just to provide some uh like some like just because the people are suffering right even that is gonna hurt a bunch of people the rent of the free is not going to solve any problem.

32:01 But it's interesting how he does this stuff where this one, he's not okay with it. It doesn't make sense too though because your teachers unions are saying, yeah, pay them. There's a shortage. We're good with it. He's saying the union should be negotiating this and they shouldn't be going direct to city council, which obviously that's not necessarily the case here. I mean, also, it makes you question if there is also a lot behind closed doors because they say like the teachers union, especially in New York, is the most powerful entity that there is and how much really that the money that are going into the whole unions, honestly, are really going to the benefit of the people that need them the most.

32:46 So that's that, but that's another point. You know, I know people who work in school systems. So I know for a fact that if the unions, the way it works. And if the unions get together and the teachers, for example, or the custodians or whatever union they're in, they do discuss these things. They go ahead and they agree on them. Then they present it to the school boards. And then from there is where the decisions are made. So this doesn't just get... You can't bypass and go straight to council this stuff. It has to go through the school board. They have to have these meetings and conversations before it even gets there. So it's like, ma'am, Danny's trying to look like a hero saying, well, there's some weird stuff going here. I'm going to save the city $325 million. And on the other hand, the schools can't keep up with providing services for students because they're understaffed.

33:29 And the only way they can see to compensate those who are, you know, bussing their butts working is just give them a little more money because, you know, wages over there. It's not cheap to live out in New York, right? So it's just an interesting play here. I'm like, I'm not sure what it was other than him trying to enforce the whole union strong labor movement thing that the DSA has been pushing, you know, the whole socialist. um yeah that's why like a lot of dsa or socialist however you want to call them those people they believe that they help people in a way that maybe hurts them or the people because even like he didn't want the homeless to live on the street and then 20 people died last winter because they didn't they didn't force them to go out of the street like i don't want to say it's mandani's fault but when you have that mentality where oh they have the right to decide to be on the street and it's it's freezing there is this no that they shouldn't like especially there are a lot of people that have mental issues so you cannot just say oh just do whatever you want and that's the the human thing to do here for you the human thing to do sometimes is to force them into a facility so um so it's a they have like a very weird ideas of what really helps people and but that's the thing i think a lot is about power because i don't think the dsa really wants to help people i think they just want the power and it was very interesting because recently uh

35:02 the i don't remember who it was but there was an interview to mamdani and they asked him what is the amount for someone to be working class. And Mamdani couldn't say it's that $50,000 a year that they make is $100,000. And Mamdani couldn't figure out what was. And then he said $1 million per year. Anyone that makes under $1 million a year is working class. It's like if someone makes $500,000 a year, that's a very wealthy person. It's a good chunk of change. Even in New York City, you're not rich because if you make $500,000 as a salary, maybe you take home $250,000 because you pay 50%.

35:47 Yeah, but you're still doing well. Yeah, you still have like $250,000. You're not poor. But that's the thing. There are a lot of people that perceive themselves as poor in New York, even if they make $140,000. And again, yeah, apartments cost very much. Everything can be expensive, but it's also a city where people really want to go out every night of the year. So I think there is some entitlement too. Because yes, of course, apartments should not cost $6,000 for one bedroom. but of course it's not everywhere that's the price. It might be $3,000 but even like $3,000 per month for a one-bedroom apartment it is not just one bedroom like in Los Angeles one bedroom can be very big here we're talking about a horrible building with a small maybe it's one bedroom and not just a studio but still very small and maybe you don't even have the light because it's all like big buildings coming through the windows and in some buildings they're old.

36:55 It's really bad, the housing. But at the same time, you're not poor. If you make $150,000 a year, you're not poor. But a lot of these people, and I know even some people in Los Angeles, that they wanted the government, like I was trying to help a friend of mine in Los Angeles because she quit her $140,000 a year job. and she always worked in big companies where she made a lot of money. She quit her job because it was a toxic environment and she didn't have insurance. So I tried to help her go through the system to get insurance and she complained that she couldn't get the government to pay for that because she made too much money in the past year.

37:39 It's like, but if you make $140,000 or at least $100,000, like a government should pay for your health insurance? answer. And well, you got to, I completely get your point, but you know, people get used to a certain lifestyle and that becomes like, that becomes their baseline. Right. And then what you're saying about, okay, you're not poor at 140,000, but I don't know. It depends where you live because I don't live far from the Bay area out in California. I'm very close to like San Francisco, San Jose, all that. And I'll tell you right now, like Santa Clara, that's not New York expensive, but if you're making $140,000, you're not rich. I mean, I'll tell you that right now. No, you're not rich. You're not rich for sure. Your cost of living is... I mean, I don't even know if you feel middle class. I mean, everything is expensive there as well. And they have, especially in San Francisco, where prices are pretty similar to real estate in New York. It's not quite there, but there are cases where a studio apartment, for example, would be like $4,000 a month, $4,200 a month.

38:39 It's gone insane. And even an average house that is not that big is a million dollars minimum and not even in a great area at all. So it's similar, but not the same. Yeah but it not the same thing as someone that makes a year That where the problem comes Because there are a lot of people that make a year like under So in New York, there are a lot of people that do that and survive. So the problem is not that if the money is available, if everything we're doing great, expand who gets help, no problem. But if right now, for example, even like the free buses, So to make the system free for everybody, like Mom and Danny wanted to do free buses, the MTA system, it's terrible.

39:34 It's really very bad in New York, especially during summer. It's so hot under the subway, and the system breaks all the time. There's always something that doesn't work. And everything looks old, smells bad. And so there is so much work that should be done in the subway in New York. So you cannot provide free buses for everybody, even tourists, when you have so much work that you have to do. Because, of course, either they don't have enough money to do what they have to do or they don't have the intention. That's a different problem. But if someone with the little money that we have available in the system, if someone should benefit, should get benefit like free buses, it should be the people that make $20,000 a year, the $40,000 a year, not the people that make $300,000 a year.

40:29 And that's where, to me, the problem with people like Mamdani is that I think it's that generation too, that we have to make the system perfect. And if it's not perfect, we're not going to do anything, but there is no system that is ever going to be perfect. You have to make, with what you have available, try to make the most important things today. but instead that generation tried to shoot for the stars so they don't have actually to do anything because you everybody knows you cannot make the the free buses in new york because also the mayor doesn't have the power the mta is controlled by the governor and they already said that we cannot do the buses for free it's not available in the budget there is not that money even like new york state struggles with money so they would have to bail out and they already bail out so many other things so you don't like instead of like try to get the buses for free for everybody because he's the people that vote for him don't make 40 000 a year the people that vote for him the most are those in the range 150 000 so but the priority should be let's give free buses and the subway to to the people that don't make enough money and right now in new york there wasn't that system that was only for people that are disabled or senior.

41:51 I don't know if they changed it now, but only certain people could get it discounted when that's much easier to achieve. So, yeah. Yeah, when you start talking about wages and living, I mean, it gets a little weird because everybody has a different perspective from where they're at in life. But I mean, look, I'll be honest. I don't know how they do it in New York, but I know being in California, that if you make a certain amount, you don't qualify for any assistance or programs. It doesn't matter. I know that for a fact. If you own a business, no matter how much you make, you're already disqualified. It doesn't matter. Because they look at you as someone who could like, no, maybe you're not doing your taxes exactly on how much you make.

42:35 You know, like, oh, you're writing all this off. Do you really have these expenses? I think there's always a little of that that goes with it. But it doesn't matter if you're making $40,000 or $100,000. These programs, are in place, like you said, to help those who don't meet a certain income level. I don't agree. Well, let's put it this way. I see what you're saying as in, well, it shouldn't be free for everybody if you have the means to provide for yourself. I get that argument. I do. But if it's your taxes that are also contributing to the upkeep and making that happen for everybody, it's kind of hard to tell those people who are paying those taxes that they can't also take advantage of, let's say, a free bus. But buses I get. I mean, there's maintenance up.

43:16 Just like you said, they don't have the money. They don't have enough coming in to keep all that up. So I get it. And it's funny to say you're doing well at $140,000, $150,000. But let's just be honest, New York, it's not that much for the cost of living. Someone making $40,000, yeah, they're pretty damn poor. That sucks for them. I wouldn't want to be there. And they do need help. Absolutely. But it's like the new middle class. you've got to be making over $150 to $200 in some of these areas just to feel like you're even close to middle class these days. It just is. I mean, for sure. But yeah. The real estate market is what did this to everybody. And so that's what's tricky.

43:58 Because you were talking earlier how Mom Donnie wanted to freeze the rents, right? Well, which also hurts the owners who can't raise the prices to keep up with everything around them going up for cost as far as maintenance and everything else. there were some landlords definitely taking advantage of people for sure. I mean, there were some slummy landlords for sure. Everywhere. And there are also so many tenants that they're also taking advantage of that too. That's the problem is that you cannot be naive in life. There are horrible people no matter where you're looking at. Oh yeah, all sides, definitely. There are like someone, like in Los Angeles, my neighbor, he was also like an older immigrant. He had this apartment that he was renting. And this guy was an ex-homeless person.

44:38 So there was this like company that was paying for his rent. So he was not responsible for the rent because this other company was paying for him to help him not be homeless. And this person had like a lot of issues. Like it was dangerous. Like you would see like different times when you walk on the street, he would like scream. Sometimes it was in the middle of the street with his eyes closed. So this person was a person with problems, obviously. And so every time I was at the end of the night, he was living like on the ground floor. and he had a bunch of random people going into the apartment, so he didn't feel safe, and they were always there with the door open. So it was a very shady situation. And apparently this guy, the owner, tried to get rid of him because apparently the people that were going inside this apartment were doing drugs, were doing prostitution, and he was getting people from all over, and they trashed the place.

45:32 He tried to enter to evict him, and he couldn't evict him because he was paying the rent because it wasn't him paying the rent it was the sponsoring company so because of that you can evict him only pretty much if someone is not paying for the rent but because there was a company paying for the rent no matter how bad he was behaving like this person was not going to work this person was not trying to get his life together so it was pretty bad and apart during this time he tried to do all the process to evict him it took him three years to do it. And this guy went to prison twice during this period. And he still couldn't get rid of him.

46:12 So there are a lot of bad landlords. What program was that under that this was going on? Do you know what it was? I mean, if he told me, but it was something for homeless people, like a sponsoring agency. Specifically for homeless people? Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah. Yeah. So... Man, that's crazy. I don't know. What I see happening is I see how when you're talking about the younger generation, I can see why they would back someone like MomDani and they feel like the allure of the DSA and the socialist message of band together, workers unite, all this stuff.

46:53 Because there is that big disparity between wages. There's a huge wage gap. And I saw it get even bigger over COVID when all of a sudden the real estate market doubled or tripled overnight, almost four times actually. And one of those problems is these large corporations like Berkshire Hathaway and all these other companies that are buying up all of this real estate as a company, corporation with no intent to sell just so that it can rent and control everybody through controlling the rent and the market. And they can buy, let's say, 100 houses, for example. Let's just say they're buying houses, not apartments. and then all they have to do is sell like let's say three houses to themselves by the way using a different shell company raising the price now all of a sudden the market value for the whole neighborhood has just shot up because it goes by your last sales right your your most recent sales within your comparable area and home so this is a tactic they've used to drive up the real estate market to where it's got a point where you can't afford to live where you work half the time in the bigger cities, right? That's why so many people commute, take the bus, drive, whatever they got to do.

47:58 And it's like the people that, like you said, they're making the $40,000. I mean, how are you ever going to be able to get even just a small home these days with the valuations that they are right now? Yeah, I mean, and that was Trump that he did the role to prevent these companies to buy the one or two family home, I think, recently. So, but that's the problem. Like in New York and It's almost too late though, right? Like the damage was already done. Yeah, I mean, yes. Like you still should act. But that's a problem. Like New York has a big, it has a shortage of houses.

48:39 And it's getting worse. So there are so many levels actually going on on this. Oh, yeah. So for example, they say there are not enough, because they say it's 1.4% of houses available in New York, and they say in New York City. And they say that under five, it's a crisis. So 1.4% is much lower than what already is considered a crisis. So they have to build houses. And I think it was right yesterday or a couple of days ago that there was a report that came out in New York City and they said to fix the crisis, they need 700,000 new homes in 10 years.

49:26 So that's what happened in the past years. So Eric Adams wanted to do 500,000 and he achieved to do like 86,000, I think, in four years. Because there are so many regulations. The problem is the regulations. It's not just the bad guys. but de Blasio in 8 years I think he did 50,000 so if in 10 years you have to achieve 700,000 and de Blasio which is Mamdani's hero made 50,000 in 8 years there is a big problem here there is a big problem but on the other side too so there are so many regulations they say there are so many regulations in New York like pipes that you need to have for water type of heating.

50:16 So some of them are obviously important because they're for the health of the people. But also a lot of those rules are probably there because of unrealistic expectation for the environment, like environmental rules. So they're really putting a big burden. So every time someone has to build a building in New York, it costs much more than building everywhere else. So what they said, that makes building luxury apartments affordable, but not affordable to make affordable apartments. Because with luxury apartments, like for example, the one where Ken Griffith was living, that cost, what was that? Like $50 million or something? Way too much.

50:57 It was like the most expensive built apartment. So they said, there were reports that were saying to build luxury apartments, it can be done in New York because you can make enough money to build. But because everything costs so much, And if you spend, I don't know, 50 millions to build, you cannot sell the total of the apartments for 30 millions because then you're losing the money. Right. So even if you're just doing even, you have to at least get even if you as a private person want to build a building. So because of the regulation, everything that is going on, and because there are all these rent stabilization, the rules about rent stabilization in New York were 50% of the units.

51:47 There are rules that say how much you can increase. And another level of this problem was in 2019, they passed a Housing Act. And they say because of that Housing Act, that before when you... You had an apartment, you rented to someone, but after this person left, you can do renovation and you can deduct enough, get credits, you know, like, and after that person, you can increase whatever you need to increase to make up for the expenses that you paid. they kept that so now because of this act there are they said that there are at least 50 000 units apartments in new york they're just sitting dead because because uh they have to do renovation because they like you cannot leave they're not livable right now you need to do the renovation but the renovation is going to cost at least maybe 200 300 000 because of this regulation because at a certain point it's not grandfathered, so you have to go to the new rules. So even if you have to do some small fixes, you might have to actually make bigger changes.

52:55 Because of that rule, then you cannot increase the rent of that apartment, and so you're going to lose money. So a lot of people say rather than spend $300,000 that I'm not going to be able to recoup, I'm going to just leave that apartment there. So, so much is going wrong in New York, and it's not just because of one thing. So, yeah. No, it's not. I mean, California is kind of similar in that situation, you know, when it comes to, I mean, we don't, they're not enforcing, most of California is not enforcing like the rent-free stuff and all that and penalizing landlords. But I mean, I was in a rent-stabilized apartment when I was in Los Angeles.

53:35 It didn't go up every year. So I don't know if it was my landlord. They were nice. They didn't raise it every year. They raise it every other year. but that's the thing that's my problem the problem with the rent-stabilized apartment it's great I loved it for sure but the problem with that is that especially in New York it's not a means they don't check your income so that means you might be even a rich person that makes $1 million a year and be able to get the rent-stabilized apartment and a person who now maybe someone is being like, needs to leave their own apartment.

54:16 Now they're looking for another apartment and maybe they make $40,000 a year. They might have to go into like the regular marketplace rate. And they cannot find that because maybe someone rich is in that apartment. So you need to have a system to prioritize people that are really hurting. And then we can expand to people that, Yes, they make $100,000. It's fine. So they don't check the income levels to meet programs out there? It depends which programs. Rent-stabilized, no. If it's Section 8, I think yes. But if it's rent-stabilized, it's not one of those programs.

54:57 So that's the problem. Yeah, that makes any sense. Yeah, that's the problem. Because then poor people might not have access to that. And when you do the rent freeze, it's even worse. because when you do the rent freeze, the people that are in that apartment, and maybe now they're making more money because their income went up. Maybe they were still under a certain threshold at the time, but now maybe they make three times more. But with the rent freeze, why would they leave the apartment? So now these people maybe are making much more money. They could afford another apartment, but there is no reason for them to do that. So let's talk about this issue though with housing because that's been a push in California too.

55:40 They're trying to force smaller towns and cities to build more housing. And I think it comes back down to the immigration though. And I'm not talking illegal. I'm just talking about immigration in general, like people moving to New York or however it works out. Should the state or any state also control how many people should be allowed to live in that state so that they can keep up with this? Because if they just allow everybody in, but they have nowhere for them to live, it doesn't make sense. You can't just absorb those people. I mean, if they don't have a place to live, they cannot live there. So I don't think... Technically, but it's like people do tend to flood to New York. And it could be people from other countries immigrating in, or it could just be people from the outside in the states going in there.

56:24 But I've noticed, and the reason I'm asking is because I don't know. I've never recalled any state saying there's a limit to the population of who can come. It's almost like they all have open arms. Like, hey, just come in. but you also can't just force to build houses everywhere and just urbanize the entire damn state either i mean in my opinion like in los angeles you can still build a lot in new york you cannot obviously because everything is already built tall and you cannot just expand into the river or to no you can't obviously so there is a there is a limit that's that's the problem like with new york there cannot be an unlimited draws in new york because there isn't the space so should they be capping the people like if it's like if you want to move there should you be able to apply or be on a waiting list i don't i don't think you can do that i think it would be probably unconstitutional but i don't think it's the it's not the immigrant necessarily because then you could put you could say the same for an american person from iowa they want to live in new york no that's my point that's what i was saying i don't care if it's an immigrant or someone from from in the states i'm saying in general like and i don't think it's unconstitutional that i know of but i I mean, it's like you can only support so many people with the infrastructure you have, right?

57:36 And it just seems like it's like, oh, keep coming, keep coming. And then you're forced into the situation where it's like, oh, damn, we have no houses. Oh, shit. Our infrastructure and our sewage is like a thousand years old, for example. You know, you just get into these problems. I mean, that's where even Ben Shapiro was saying you're not entitled to live in a place. and I agree with that because, of course, if New York became the most affordable city on earth and we give housing for free, of course, everybody would come to New York and you cannot do that. That's why also the prices, if a city is very well wanted by a lot of people, the prices will go up.

58:18 It's a demand and supply issue. It's just the market. Yeah, it's like if now you have 10,000 people that want the same apartment, Of course, I could charge the most. So it's normal. So that's where, to me, New York will never be affordable because New York is a city where a lot of people want to go. The same thing. It's just like a regular... It's a destination for sure. Yeah. Yeah, people would want to come. So, of course, if everything was affordable, there was a limited space, everybody would like to come. So, yes. But I don't think you need to do a cap because I think the reality is already capping that. Because if you don't have money, you cannot come here.

58:59 If you don't have a job, you cannot come here. Yeah, the people still try, though. Now, I live in Jersey. I live in Jersey, and Jersey is amazing because it's so well-connected to New York, and it's much cheaper. So that's also, for me, in this situation, it's not that I'm rich at all. So there are other ways. So it's not that everybody needs to be in Manhattan. I would love to live in Manhattan, but in this moment of my life, I cannot afford it. So I'm not doing it. I'm not asking the government to pay for me to live because I want to live there. I just think given the situation, given what's been going on across the country, I don't think it should be unquestionable to regulate population in terms of how many people can live.

59:44 Basically, they got to look at how much can a city support, for example. Yeah, but at the same time, The problem is that you want the people who work the hardest, the people that have opportunities to live there. So let's say now there are the people living in New York right now and we kept this. Okay, now maybe there are people who are not going to work or taking benefits. Now you're going to block someone who has a job offer in New York. They cannot come because there is no housing because it's there is. I don't think it's doable. Yeah, I hear that. But that's I think where it's just like that person that's not contributing is there regardless. you know i mean they're they're still going to be dragging the system down regardless yeah i mean obviously i just think my people that are able to work they should be able to yeah i think i think we're missing each other here because i'm not saying to cap someone's opportunity what i'm literally saying is your infrastructure and land like what you have and resources there's all it can only provide for so much if if you and i got trapped on a deserted Island, for example, is what I'm getting at.

1:00:48 Maybe it's that big, right? We have one coconut tree, and that's all we got. And if that tree starts to not produce fast enough for us to eat, does that little island seem feasible to support the population at that time? Would you be welcoming to five other people trying to come on that little island and eat more of your coconuts? Probably not. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just saying I'm just talking about from a resource perspective, not from a job or opportunity perspective. I'm just thinking source-wise. No, but that's why I'm talking about the apartments too. It's like, or the free buses. Resources are limited. You cannot just assume it's like, we're going to grow, we're going to get more money.

1:01:28 You have to deal with what you have. And right now there is already a crisis. That's why I also decided, why am I going to look for an apartment in New York where even the people that have lived there, they know people and they have like all kinds of money, cannot find an apartment. Why would I put myself in that situation? Yeah, but you're sensible. I know, but that's what we want in people. If you cannot afford to be there, there are other options. No, agreed, yeah. I get where you're coming from. Especially for someone, and I'm coming from outside, I would feel like if someone needed to be prioritized, it would be the families that have been born and grown in New York. Those people, if they have issues after so many years of staying there, the system should support them more than me, that I'm coming now to New York for the first time.

1:02:15 so that's where like everything is limited so yeah you have to prioritize and you have to prioritize the people that are hurting the most but it was also an interesting video that i saw the other day i think it was the washington post and it was showing what's the problem with new york related to this because the population in new york has been going down but the housing crisis has been continuing and getting worse so how is that possible if your population especially since COVID has been going down. Yeah, that don't make sense. But it makes sense because they said before, especially maybe like 20 years ago, 30 years ago, there were many more families.

1:02:56 So before maybe you would have a family of four people living in one apartment. Now everybody's single in New York. A lot of people are not marrying. A lot of people are not like starting a family. So the population might be going down because the families are not staying there. But all the single transplants that are coming from the other side of the country are coming. So a lot of these people are still living with roommates. So, of course, in this situation, you might still have two or three people in one apartment. But a lot of people especially the one that are wealthy the 150 the 200 people money a year the people are going to live in their own apartment So in that case you might have one person for one apartment when maybe before when there were more families there would be four people in one apartment So that was actually very interesting.

1:03:47 Yeah. So how's ma'am Danny going to fix this? He's not going to fix that. That's the problem. Because it's already a very difficult issue. And a lot of people that are more experienced than him couldn't achieve that success. and he doesn't really want to fix that. He's not the builder. He doesn't have the experience. So if other people with much more experience than him couldn't do more than 80,000, 50,000 in four years, he's not going to build more. So he's doing the rent freeze, which again is another problem. So to achieve the rent freeze, which was done before too, so he's not the first time that New York does a rent freeze.

1:04:30 But also, beside all the problems of the rent freeze, how it prevents other people from building, how to get people to move out, etc. But the problem with the rent freeze also, it is interesting because they're all against corruption, they're all against all this kind of situation in government. But in order to get the rent freeze, so there is the rent board guideline. This is like an entity that has been voting on this issue. Housing authority? Yeah, it's not the housing authority, but it's a separate group. But it's part of those. And so the people have been appointed by the mayor.

1:05:10 So some have been appointed by Adams. He appointed a bunch of these people. So they're appointed by the mayor, but the mayor cannot tell them what to do. They're supposed to be independent. They're supposed to do every year, and it's a mixture of people. So some people are landlords. Some people are tenants. and then some people are just from the general public. So it's a mix so that the interests of all the people are being respected, let's say. But these people have to put together a report to see how much you would have to increase the percentage in these rent-stabilized apartments in order to make sure that the landlords are not losing money, let's say.

1:05:54 So just to break even. And they did this report at the beginning of the year, maybe a few months ago. And I think it was that they would have to increase 8.5% over two years in order just to break even for the landlords because the expenses for the landlords keep going up. Utilities go up, property, everything. Possibly a business goes up. Yeah, like maintenance, every expense goes up. So they did this report. I think it was 8.5% over two years leases, that they would have to increase it. They're rent-stabilized. They don't do the marketplace one. So just rent-stabilized, which is like 40-50% of the apartments in New York.

1:06:39 So they did the report, and they said that in order for the system where no one loses, you have to increase that. So technically, based on the report, that then they have to decide what's going to be the increase per year so it would be three percent four percent one percent or they can also decide to do a rent freeze but now they did this report what they said just for everybody to break even you have to increase it what's that like four percent for one year leases and then they voted on the rent freeze so that's they're technically supposed to vote based on the numbers not on what the mayor wants and the night before the vote or the day before whatever it was one of the people that was appointed by adam so she resigned in protest because she said that they were never going to look at the numbers for that so they said that the mayor mamdani already set them up and appointed people to force them to do the rent the rent freeze even if like the numbers were against it so now of course a bunch of people started suing.

1:07:45 So now that's in the court. Because, of course, that's the thing. You're not supposed to push for a specific outcome. It has to be an independent group. What do they think will happen if landlords can't afford to... They're not going to lose money year over year, or every month anyway. You can't run a business at a negative. income just doesn't work so what do they think what do they think is going to be the outcome here but first of all they don't care because they think that all landlords are evil but that's the problem that's the problem yeah but no but that's that's the problem because yes there are there are landlords that they're losing every month every month money because of the rules rent stabilized there are still people like in a rent control department so maybe someone pays 500 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.

1:08:41 So there are still situations like that in New York. So there, with 500 per month, you cannot do any renovation, you cannot do any maintenance or anything. But the problem with that is that even when you look at what you need to break even, it's in general for the five boroughs, but that's a very, very different situation between Manhattan and the Bronx. So the people that are really hurting are the landlords that are in Queens, in the Bronx. It's not the people in Manhattan. So when they say, oh, we're going to do a rent freeze because the landlords are fine. Yes, the one in Manhattan, they have like a lot of money. They are fine.

1:09:22 But it's the people that are relying on that. It's the immigrants who are like renting apartments. It's the minorities. They are not fine. And so that's where, again, who is Mamdani for? because, yeah, if you look at the members, it's like in the middle, yes. The reason I also brought that up is because I don't know if he actually did this, but I thought they're also trying to push a policy that if the landlords don't keep the buildings up or something to that effect, that the city can go and take their property from them and own it. Is that something that ever did happen out there? Yeah, I mean, talk about that. And it sounded like they were trying to push a rule where even recently there was this thing where if a landlord wanted to sell an apartment, the priority, like he couldn't sell it to whoever he wanted.

1:10:16 He would have to give priority to some nonprofits that seemed to be connected also to the government. So that rule didn't pass, luckily. But they were trying to do something like that, were like, if you wanted to sell it, you have to sell it to us pretty much first. Technically, it wasn't the government, but I think it was some entities that are kind of connected. Yeah. That's shady, man. It is very shady. It's very shady. That's him. I think all Mamdani has been trying to do is basically show the rest of the country how socialism can work. He's trying to do it little by little through these stupid policies. It's like his dumb grocery store. How is that getting funded, man?

1:10:56 and then it's so funny because he was one of the staunch reporters of no voter ID, right? Oh, it just marginalizes people. It's racist. But then at the same time, he's like, well, we might have to come up with some kind of idea system so people don't take advantage. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about, dude? I thought that was like, we can't do that. I thought it was racist and marginalizes people. But then, okay. It's like there's so much conflicting messages from this guy. It's like he's literally like, I think it's what you said. He's a puppet. I think he's just a puppet, a mouthpiece by whoever's pulling the strings. But whoever's in charge, they don't know what they're doing. I think they're just hoping everyone's just dumb enough to go with it. Unfortunately, a lot of people have been dumb enough to go with it.

1:11:39 I mean, and that's, again, even with that one, it's going to hurt minorities. And right now, they started doing lawsuits against him because of the grocery. The same thing. He was saying, we're going to build grocery stores for 70 millions. But I think even just the first one, right now the price tag is 30 million so if you have to do five and already the first one is 30 million obviously you're not going to be able to achieve five with 70 million and you know every time you say it's going to cost something it always increase anyway we actually build it so but besides that so the point it's to build the the grocery stores it's to provide affordable food to pin areas, technically, where there is food deserts.

1:12:27 But the problem is that it's not a food desert, especially in New York. There are bodegas everywhere, bodegas that are owned by minorities. It's not a place full of Whole Foods or something like that. And right now, the first two are in the Bronx and in Harlem. But over there, there are a lot of different communities that have bodegas and he fee because the problem like he's not going to be able to sell and make a profit or anything with those stores the government will have to subsidize everything because he's he's literally hurting like families who started businesses some of them had these bodegas for generations and just provide the community service and then he's literally just taking money out of their pocket by putting a government-funded grocery store. I mean, we've seen this happen before in Cuba. That didn't work out too well. I'm just saying, it's like the dude is trying to implement things here that it just doesn't work.

1:13:26 I don't... And right now, she's... Yeah, it is. And I'm all for bold ideas trying something different. If you want to take a risk, take risk. But in this case, it makes no sense to... Because you have to... First of all, not all of them, they're going to build it. But this one, they have to build and spend millions of dollars. It's going to take years. And anyway, you're not going to be able to... Already in the grocery industry, the profit, they say, is 1%. So we're not talking about people that make a huge profit. So it's already difficult. Plus, you don't have the same... For five stores, you don't have the same purchasing power as grocery stores like the giant ones.

1:14:07 And there are a lot of these grocery stores, they're still affordable. Aldi, Costco, there are a lot of options for affordable food. But what drives me crazy, I'm Italian, I cook a lot, and I love going to grocery stores. But he keeps saying the price is going to be 30% cheaper than the regular price. But what does he mean? What does it mean? It's not that the FDA decides zucchini will cost $2.50 all across the country and you do 30%. Every store picks their prices and something might be cheaper in one grocery store, something might be at another one.

1:14:50 So the 30% of what price? And plus, I buy organic food that is more expensive than the other food. So if you do 30% cheaper, of which one? Are you providing organic food that is cheaper? I doubt it. Or you just getting lower quality food and charging 30 less than what Whole Foods would charge for organic None of it makes sense Sarah because you correct My brother he doesn work in the grocery industry He doesn't work for a grocery store, but he's been in the industry because he works for beverage companies and distribution. And you're lucky if you get a 3% margin on some stuff for sure. And grocery chains, they work by volume.

1:15:32 It's volume sales. They're not getting rich off a couple sales here and there. They're relying on continuous volume purchases. I don't know how he thinks he's going to get vegetables and meat and everything to market for 30% below market value. And like you said, it's a city. It's not like the state of New York. It's a city. So they don't have the buying power of a Sam's Club, a Walmart. I don't know what other stores might be in your area out there, but it's just like they don't have that buying power. Does he think he's going to force farmers and food suppliers to just donate? and that's and i think there are so many problems in this country because of like food supplies or everything rules of the i hate the fda but besides that it's also like a big a big country so if you have to get some food from another place they're like the chain or who needs to get paid it's a long chain because like if you have to get something from the next state let's say something closer, not even like Mexico or whatever.

1:16:33 Someone needs to drive that food to you. The gas needs to be paid. If the gas price goes up, that's more expensive. The person needs to be paid. But again, very often, even when you go to a coffee shop, you don't pay $6 the coffee because the beans are expensive. You pay the rent and you pay the minimum wage. You pay a lot of expenses that are not the actual food. Yeah. So to believe that the problem is that the food, you're making too much margin on the food, that's ridiculous. And a lot of people have to charge a certain amount for food because their rent is expensive, because the property taxes is expensive if they own the place.

1:17:15 The utilities are expensive, the minimum wage. And that's the problem with the minimum wage. I believe everybody should have a living wage. But the problem is that when the minimum wage keep going up, it's not Amazon that will suffer for a minimum wage going up. It's the small businesses. Because the small businesses that have a couple of people, they already cannot afford with the money they are making that much. And it drives me crazy because I was working for a nonprofit in Los Angeles. And they're all people that would support Mamdani if he was there. They would support the DSA. would they pay $30 per hour as a minimum wage? They would never do that. And they don't do that.

1:17:56 And every time someone asks for more money, oh, that's a problem. We cannot afford it. It's like, then why would you support someone who requires the minimum wage of $30 an hour? How are you reasoning here? Yeah, I've had that experience because I've owned businesses. I still have one. And I always found it fascinating for people like who you're describing, I mean, who would support the DSA, for example? They're all for it when it's not their money. But when you ask them to take it out of their pocket, all of a sudden it's an issue. Like, oh, wait, wait a minute. Now you're cutting into my profits, right? I remember businesses were always telling me, oh, why can't you just do it for this price or donate this or that? I was like, well, why don't you take a pay cut for a month then or something?

1:18:39 Would you accept that? Would you accept a lower wage for the job you actually do? Of course they wouldn't. It's just so hypocritical. It's all fluff, man. It's theater. It's bullshit, to be quite honest. Yeah. I mean, that's a problem. A lot of people don't want solution. And it is just theater. They want to feel good now, but they don't understand how that's going to affect them later. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, even like the rent freeze. Yeah, it might be nice for one year for you that you're living there. But next time that you, in 10 years, you're looking for a new apartment or it's winter and your heater breaks. And the landlord cannot fix it because it would cost even air conditioning.

1:19:24 Like for a building, not maybe the small units, but working in big buildings. If you have to replace one unit because it's 10 years old, 15 years old, it can cost you $10,000, $20,000 just to replace one unit if it's a big building. Yeah. So maybe if you just have that window unit, you're fine. Maybe it costs $500, $1,000 when you have to pay for labor. but if you have an actual centralized unit, that might be much more expensive. And so now the landlord might not be able to afford it and now you're spending months or maybe just days if you're lucky. But if it's something big, that needs to really be fixed, complicated, it's still going to take months and you don't have air conditioning.

1:20:07 But a lot of these problems will be seen in five years, in 10 years. And so by that point, Mom Dani will be out of office. so then it's going to be the fault of the person that is there at the time i don't think he's getting voted back honestly i hope i hope not and i don't i don't think he is because there there is just so much going on and yeah honestly yeah i mean there is so much conversation we could do about elections too there are some people that are actually looking into if the election that he got elected was actually legit i didn't hear that yeah it's a it's a very small people like But they said they found at least 200,000 votes that they couldn't figure out their registration.

1:20:51 So it's only a few people are talking about that. So it's and it's not clear if these people are really like the method that they are using to find these people, if it's true. But the problem is that when you look into actually how the election went last time, because if in order to vote for that election, you had to live in New York City. for 30 days but but you could be living there temporarily so let's say if it was during the summer and the winter let's say let's say you decided to spend a few months on an airbnb like just for those months working remotely while you enjoyed the winter the summer in new york and you could have registered to vote there and they would not ask you for proof or anything like you just have to give an address.

1:21:44 Are you saying they fixed the votes? Like they brought people in to vote for Manbani? I mean, I don't know. I don't know. But it was so relaxed. So it's not that you have to give big proof that you actually live there. And you can live there. It does raise suspicion, though. When you're talking about it, it does make you think like, well, was it a legitimate vote? You know, there might be an argument there for sure, right? I know. that's like to me like i have what people are saying oh there is no proof of fraud i understand but i like are you looking into the situation or just assuming just because someone claimed that they were legal to vote that means they could vote right so because you could have registered when you were not living there and you just have a like in the registration that was written are you declaring that you've been living for like you have lived in new york for at least 30 days before the election and you just have to say yes you don't have to provide any proof obviously so but technically someone could have done that i could have stayed in an airbnb could have stayed at a friend's couch so you you could register in someone's place without necessarily living there the whole time how who's gonna check and then when you're done you go the next city register over there and live there for 30 days i don't know i'm just saying no but it is scary and of Of course, you want the system to be open because if you legitimately live in New York, you want to give the chance.

1:23:15 But how do you make it safe if someone has no morals? If someone doesn't care of lying just to get someone elected, how do you fix that? And everybody says, oh, everybody checked that there is no fraud. But are people looking for real? So I don't know. Yeah, it does sound suspicious. It does. I know someone was doing that, but yeah, it's not picking up much attention yet. So, but yeah, they said it was at least, I think 200,000 people and they just did half of the people that they couldn't find if they actually lived there in New York or if these people existed or if their social security existed.

1:23:57 It was something like that. but again, I don't know if... California election. Yeah. I mean, California is the same thing. Like, Oh, man. Again, like, I mean, I left Los Angeles right before the election, but there were, like, I'm not a citizen, so I cannot vote. But I could tell you, like, on the mailbox on the street where, like, the building is, there were, like, three mailing ballots. So if someone wanted to grab those and vote, they could have done it. So the way that the system, they check that is the right person is that they check if the signature is the same, right?

1:24:37 But then if you go on the website, it'd say, if you're disabled or if you cannot sign, just do a random mark there and then just have a witness write their own name nearby. So you could say, you could just do a random mark there that is not the signature, write there Donald Trump in the witness. and California would accept that technically. Is there a system for California to make sure that those witnesses are real people? And it's just... You know, I am going to find out. I have a county clerk coming on the show here next week where I live.

1:25:19 And we met at a conservative gathering out here somewhere. and so that's where I met her she was giving a speech and then I was talking to her about this exactly what you're talking about and she showed me like in a presentation you had all these videos and she explained how it's done and it's like it makes you question it's like it's like how could there not be fraud but at the same time what I could see that she's on top of whatever she's supposed to do like I can see that she's doing everything she's supposed to do to make sure there isn't any fraud, any business, you know, sorry, silly business going on. And she says they take their time. They literally touch every envelope. They literally verify. But then you also have ballot curing, which is legal. You have a ton of other things that is suspect. Like when this whole Spencer Pratt thing was going on, in spite of what you're referring to, we have video.

1:26:11 Like they caught people going to homeless people, paying them a couple of dollars just to sign and cast their vote. you know yeah yeah i mean it's hard to know if those are true because you know social media like i saw i get it but it's it's possible is the thing you know i don't know which one would be worse the fact that they paid someone for their vote or that they paid them only two dollars right because honestly like if someone had to sell their vote at least get a few hundred dollars but it's just it's just i brought that up because it's you're right we don't know if that was true or not but at the same time it raises suspicion because there no one controlling those things Like once it gets into the clerk office sure the only thing they control is what in their building and the procedures that they got to do to verify But before it gets there, we don't know how those votes are being coerced or how they're being gathered.

1:27:01 We have no idea. Yeah. I'm sure the people that are actually counting and doing the work, they're honest. They're doing the right job. But if the system is broken so that someone can register, like someone that is an immigrant who's not allowed to vote, if someone can actually register. Because when you create your ID, you get an ID at DMV. They ask you, do you want to register? The other day, even on Facebook, I changed that I live in New York and it asked me if I should register to vote in the new city, like Facebook. I was like, I don't know how, if they're going to just send me to the other website, but even Facebook was asking just because they changed the city.

1:27:44 But anyway, so when you go to DMV, you have to say if you can vote to register to vote or not. Of course, if you're not a citizen, you have to do not. But if you do yes, do they check to make sure that the person who actually registered to vote is a citizen and can vote? I'm wondering that same thing. How would they check? That's the problem because in Italy, first of all, when you go to vote, you have to show your ID. And in our ID, it's written what your citizenship is. But in your ID, it doesn't say if you're an American citizen or if you're something else citizen. So I think that's where it should be fixed.

1:28:26 And the ID should say what your citizenship is, would be the simplest issue. Because even if you do what your ID rules, yes, you can see that someone is the person in the ID, but it doesn't say that person is a citizen or not. I think that's why they were pushing for the real ID because if you have a real ID, you're supposed to have been verified, basically. I don't know about verified, but you can get, as an immigrant, a real ID too. Yeah. So you can have a real ID, but you cannot vote. But there is that thing. First of all, in Italy, they also give you a piece of paper. So they're supposed to stamp there so that you cannot just go and re-vote or something else.

1:29:11 So they can see that you voted for that election. So you have given these two pieces of paper every time you go and vote, except if you vote by mail. But the only people in Italy allowed to vote by mail are the immigrants. Sorry, the immigrants, the people that live abroad. So for me, they mail me a ballot when I have to vote for Italy, and then I just send it. But even there, in Italy, there is talk all the time about the fraud that happens for those living abroad because the system cannot be really checked. Even like last time I voted, I didn't receive the ballot. So I had to request a second one. So what if I was lying and now I voted twice? No one would be able to check that probably.

1:29:53 So in Italy, there is a lot of conversation about it. Not a lot because there are not that many people living abroad and voting, obviously. But it's a bipartisan issue. It's not the Republicans like here. If you question the legitimacy of an election, you're a Republican and Democrats don't want to go into that. But that's where you need to have a system to make sure that people are verified. I think it's ridiculous that that SAVE Act, for example, is not getting passed. It's not even a partisan issue. And to your point, I mean, look, it's not even a Republican issue.

1:30:34 It's just the Republicans that are bringing it up now. But before that, I brought this up previously. Al Gore was claiming fraud when Bush won. Hillary Clinton was claiming fraud when Trump won in 2016. So it's like all sides do it. It's just when they're on the losing side that it becomes an issue, right? Yeah. I know even when Trump won this time, someone I know, she's very much the left. She said that Trump won only because Elon Musk was able to trick the places where you vote, like the machines. So people on the left believe that too, that he's not legit, that he didn't win the election.

1:31:17 It goes for both sides. So I think the whole, what you're saying, like an actual verified, I don't know why. You're right. It should have your citizenship on your ID. Why isn't it there? It doesn't make sense. Yeah, it shouldn't be controversial that because, yeah, you're a citizen. I'm sure someone is going to come and say it's racist or something to be able to see someone as a citizen or not. But you can be, it doesn't matter what your skin color is. You can be from Poland, for example, and not be a citizen of the US. You can be from Canada. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I mean, and that would solve all the issues with ICE too. Because now if you're American and someone stops you on the street, like ICE stops you, you don't have a way to prove that you're a citizen because you're not going to drive your car with your passport, even if you have one.

1:32:07 So even for you, American, you don't have a way to prove to ICE that you're an American citizen. Except the accent, technically, maybe they can understand that. I know, but at the same time, you're right. How are you going to prove it? How would I prove it? How would anybody really prove it? Yeah. So I'd have to go back and get documents. And by the time you get it, you're probably in another country. Who knows? Yeah. And I, I'm sure I would have a way in the system to be able to see like who's a citizen or not or something. But again, it doesn't seem like it's because I was checking even with chat GPT. If I was missing something about how do they prove that's the DMV in California.

1:32:48 Is there in Italy, there is a website where the government can find this information, like their private website, obviously, like a database, where they can see this information. But Italy is one country with one government, and all the region responds to the government. Here you have the different states that are not talking to the federal government, and the elections are run by the different states. So from my understanding, there is no database that the government is running where every state can get that information, which should exist and should be very simple to create. Well, I'm very positive there's a database of who's a citizen and who isn't.

1:33:29 I'm pretty sure they probably have that. They must have it. Yeah, they have to. But does DMV have access to that? That's a question for your future guests, so that they can verify that the person registered. DMV is an evil organization. I don't know. Who knows? I don't know what they can really do and can't do, to be honest. Yeah, but that's the question I have. But then here there was the crazy situation in New Jersey where the system, did you hear about the immigrants that got registered to vote by the system? I heard a little bit. I mean, I don't know all the details, but I kind of heard it loosely from another podcaster.

1:34:10 but sounded that like immigrants like naturally when they had to do the DMV registration or however it's called here they did, they wrote, they clicked no but the system still enrolled them yeah, and it still put them which like there can be fraud everywhere but that's the only one that should never happen like it shouldn't be the system automatically enrolling someone into that so that's pretty bad and sounded that a few still voted But again, also a lot of people might not necessarily know that they cannot vote because even in some countries, like for some local election, you're allowed to vote even if you're an immigrant. So it's possible someone did vote and didn't know about that.

1:34:53 Like even I received some time ago, the one for the, what do you call it? The jury duty. Yeah. Like they sent it to me and then I had to fill the form to communicate that I'm not a citizen. So I'm not allowed to vote. But if you don't actually do your own researches on Google and you receive this one, you think you might qualify. So it can be confusing if someone is not that savvy, I guess. So the system is broken for sure, right? The system should not allow that. Sir, I'm going to have to cut this here because I got to go. But do you have anything else you want to tell anybody?

1:35:34 I don't know. We've been talking about so much stuff, but it feels like always there is so much more to talk about. Well, yeah. I mean, I think we just need to have you here more often because our conversation... Second time I talk to you, we do tend to keep going, which I'm not opposed to. I just have to get moving. So it's not trying to be a jerk. We've been here an hour and a half. We didn't even talk about the DSA. No, we didn't get there. We didn't talk about that another time. I'm sure there's going to be more. We'll talk again. So let's do this. Tell everybody how they can follow you, find you. Tell them a little bit about what you're working on. If you are, I have no idea. I know that you have some iron in the fire.

1:36:15 Well, right now, I also started the Substack where I've been writing more about this. I recently wrote an article that I actually talk about the fact that Italy didn't qualify in the World Cup for three times in a row. And I connect that to actually the problem with the educational system and the immigration debate in the United States. So it's a complex one, but it's actually very interesting. And so I wrote a piece on my Substack, and I wrote another one where I also talk about Mamdani's policies. So if people want to check that out, it's under my name, Substack, Sarah Alessandrini. and if they want to check out my website where they can find more about my documentary series it's thisiswhatnewyorkersay.com so they can just go online find more about me and there are links to my social media so I'm on Instagram or on Twitter the usual ones so they can find me there nice well I'm going to sign off and I think if we're staying up late because again you're like three hours ahead of me so I appreciate it.

1:37:20 And you and I will be talking again. I have a feeling and next time we are going to get onto the DSA first, I think. I think we're meeting next week, actually. I think we're going to be together with Sam next week. Maybe. She hasn't told me yet, but I know she scheduled me. So I guess you and I will be seeing each other here again really soon. Yes. That's awesome. All right. Thank you very much, Sarah. And I guess I'll see you in about a week on Shades of Jade podcast, apparently. Yeah. All right, Sarah. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Bye.

1:38:17 Bye.